--- Leila <hineni@...> wrote:

> Iroquois Midwinter Festival (Jan 30 - Feb 8)
>
> “The most important Iroquois celebration of renewal
> is the Midwinter Festival – a six day festival which
> begins around New Years or when the Pleiades are
> directly overhead at dusk, and which focuses on
> dreamsharing, dream renewal and dream
> interpretation.
>
> “The Midwinter Festival, also called the ‘Greatly
> Prized Ceremony,’ celebrates the battle between the
> creative and destructive forces in the universe, as
> symbolized by an Iroquois myth which focuses upon
> the antagonism between the Creator, Sky Holder, and
> his younger brother. It concludes the old year and
> begins the new year, and involves both thankfulness
> for the blessings of the past and hopes for the
> future. As one Iroquois said, ‘At the Midwinter
> Festival we beg the Creator for everything; most of
> the time we are thanking him for what he gave us.’
>
> “One of the first rites of the Midwinter Festival is
> the extinguishing of old household fires, the
> stirring of ashes, and the rekindling of new fires.
> As the ashes are stirred, the Iroquois also
> participate in a tobacco invocation, and pray:
>
> ‘I am thankful that I am alive in health. Now the
> time has come in which the Midwinter Ceremony is
> marked. So then now do you, Sky-Holder who live in
> the sky, do you continue to listen? ...You next, the
> nocturnal Orb of Light, our Grandmother, and now
> also the Stars on the sky in many places, do you
> know that every one of those who remain alive has
> made preparation to thank you now with one voice?
> Now, our Grandmother, they thank you, and also the
> stars fixed on the sky in many places’.” Source
>
> Iroquois Dreamwork and Spirituality
>
> The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations
>




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