Navajo Night Chant

Navajo Night Chant

Nine days in late fall or early winter

The nine-night ceremony known as the Night Chant or the Nightway (Yei Bei Chei) is believed to date from around 1000 b.c.e., when it was first performed by the Indians who lived in Canyon de Chelly (now eastern Arizona). It is considered to be the most sacred of all Navajo ceremonies and one of the most difficult to learn, because it involves memorizing many songs, prayers, and the complicated designs used in sand paintings. Like the Navajo Mountain Chant, the Night Chant is basically a healing ritual, designed both to cure people who are sick and to restore the order and balance of human relationships within the Navajo universe.
The Night Chant begins when the medicine man—a combination doctor-priest who has learned the intricate and detailed practices that are essential to the chant—emerges from the lodge leading the dancers, who represent the gods. The medicine man intones a long healing prayer for those who are sick and performs several other ritual acts. Then the dancers begin. The chant itself is performed without variation and has a hypnotic effect on the listeners.

CONTACTS:
Navajo Tourism Department
P.O. Box 663
Window Rock, AZ 86515
928-810-8501; fax: 928-810-8500
www.discovernavajo.com

SOURCES:
DancingGods-1931, p. 233
EncyNatAmerRel-2001, p. 202
HolSymbols-2009, p. 619