The first few Katsinam of the new year are said to appear at the beginning of the Winter Solstice. Ceremonies involve the making of prayer objects, offering many prayers and rituals, and a rabbit hunt and feast at its conclusion. The prayers and rituals at this Solstice help the Hopi turn the sun toward its summer home and begin giving strength to all life for the growing season ahead. It is appropriate that the Katsinam help assist us in our Winter solstice celebration. Let’s learn more about them.
Katsinam are spirits or personifications of things in our world. A Katsina can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos. Katsinam are understood as having human-like relationships: families such as parents and siblings, as well as marrying and having children. Although not worshipped, each is respected as a powerful being who may utilize that particular power for human good.
The central theme of Katsina beliefs and practices as explained in the article "Hopi Kachinas: A Life Force", by Barton Wright from Hopi Nation: Essays on Indigenous Art, Culture, History, and Law is "the presence of life [is] in all objects that fill the universe. Everything has an essence or a life force, and humans must interact with these or fail to survive."
Each year, throughout the period from winter solstice to mid-July, these spirits, in the form of Katsinam, come down to the villages to dance and sing, to bring rain for the upcoming harvest, and to give gifts to the children. Prior to each katsina ceremony, the men of the village will spend days studiously making figures in the likeness of the katsinam represented in that particular ceremony. The figures are then passed on to the daughters of the village by the Giver Kachina during the ceremony. Following the ceremony, the figures are hung on the walls of the pueblo and are meant to be studied in order to learn the characteristics of that certain Kachina. One author describes it as essentially it is a means of education; it is a gift at dance-time; it is a decorative article for the home, but above all it is a constant reminder of the Katsinam.
The first ceremony of the year occurs in February and is associated with the planting, the growing season, and coming of age. The last katsina ceremon occurs in July and is associated with the harvest, after which the katsinam return to their home in the San Francisco Peaks.
Each year, the opening ceremony of the Katsina season of the Hopi people is performed by katsinam. These figures are traditionally carved from cottonwood root by Hopi men. The return appearance of the Katsina, after a six month absence, signals the starting of a new Hopi year at the winter solstice. Since July, the Katsinam have been living deep inside the volcanic San Francisco peaks of northern Arizona. Starting in late November, the Katsinam make their way from inside the mountains down to the warmth of the Kivas.
This ceremony opens the new Katsina season in December, when a solitary figure makes its way into the village. For many villages, the Katsina make their first appearance at the winter solstice ceremony. The primary ritual is to help turn the sun back toward the summer path, along with the preparation of prayer feathers for the coming year. This is also the time when the people “open the kivas" by marking the hatch ways with cornmeal to welcome the Katsinam. A kiva is a chamber, built wholly or partly underground, traditionally used by male members of the Pueblo people for religious rites.
The first Katsina of the year arrives almost unnoticed, following a set path, singing a song, too low to be heard by others. He stops at the village kiva to gather prayer feathers. The kiva, being underground, is entered through the roof. There are no doors; only a fire pit with benches along the walls and a sipapu, a small hole cut into the floor, a hole known as the "place of emergence" or "place of origin," where humans emerged from the underworld. After he has visited the Kiva and completed his ritual, the Katsina makes his way out of the village and disappears, having opened the Katsina season for the coming year.
For this particular winter solstice celebration, the katsinam gathered around this single flame are (left to right):
Heli'li -the guardian of the veil between worlds and protector of those who travel between worlds through his shamanic dances.
Masau’u - known to many as the death Katsina, is guardian of the underworld, where seeds, germinate, and new life originates.
Sohu is universally known as Star Katsina; the emissary or messenger to the Hopi people from the constellation of Orion and the celestial sky waters. It is said that, when the Hopis emerged from underground, through the Sipapu, into the fourth world, Sohu taught them agriculture techniques for living on earth.
White Bear brings powerful, potent bear medicine for the healing of all illness.
Buffalo Mana (Maiden) brings youth and beauty to all aspects of Hopi life.
Chöp, the antelope hunter provides sustenance for the village.
Niman stands in the background with Mother Crow, the Matriarch. Niman brings the rain of the annual monsoons and also oversees the departure of the Katsinam into the mountains.
These are but a small number of the over 300 to 1000 Katsinam that scholars have been able to identify.
We welcome them at our winter solstice celebration. You may study them more closely in the image below.
