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The Hopi Indians celebrate the winter solstice with the soybean ceremony, which includes purification, blessings, and calling back the sun. The ceremony involves exchanging gifts, dancing, praying, and making offerings to the gods. The celebration has similarities to other solstice traditions and represents a triumph of good over evil.
Soy is a traditional solstice celebration held by the Hopi Indians on the day and night of the winter solstice. Many cultures around the world celebrate the solstice in various ways, as the shortest day of the year carries with it much symbolism for cultures that live by the cycles of the seasons. For the Hopi, the soybean ceremony is one of the most important ceremonies of the year, and it’s also a great excuse for a party and an opportunity to socialize with friends and neighbors.
During this winter festival, the Hopi perform ceremonies designed to call the sun back from its winter slumber. The Hopi believe that the sun god traveled far from the tribe during the solstice, so they use warriors and other powerful tribe members to coax the sun back. Soy is also traditionally a time of purification and blessings, and marks the turn of the year. In addition to performing specific ceremonies on Soyal, many Hopi also exchange gifts and well wishes.
The soybean ceremony is preceded by gifts of feathers tied with cotton or other fibers which are exchanged among the members of the tribe. As night falls, the Hopi gather in a kiva, an underground sacred space of prayer, bringing their gifts of feathers to decorate the space as people dance, pray, make offerings to the gods, and play music. Celebrants also perform an elaborate dance that mimics the struggle between darkness and light, with the sun god ultimately emerging in triumph.
One of Soyal’s signature images is an effigy of a feathered serpent, representing the forces of darkness seeking to swallow the sun. During the ceremony, people make offerings to the serpent that are meant to appease it so it doesn’t swallow the sun god. The sun is represented by a traditional shield which is carried in the soy dance.
This Native American celebration has much in common with solstice traditions from other parts of the world; visitors from other traditional cultures are likely to find a lot in common between Soyal and their own winter holidays. Like many societies, the Hopi connect the return of the sun with a triumph of good over evil and use the longest night of the year as a time to reflect and cleanse for the upcoming year.
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