amiu - the darkest night
Jan. 10th, 2005 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkThe new moon after the longest night is known as:
amunrujówó múúnnú
the darkest night
Depending on the year's position within the lunar-solar cycle, it falls on various days around the end of the season of Rain and the beginning of the season of Grass. If the solstice is a new moon, the darkest night is celebrated the night after.
On this night, the moon has succeeded in persuading the sun to slow down, but the nights are still long, and when the moon turns her face away to observe the stars, various malignant spirits may be seen. But this is not a serious holiday like the solstice; the people have confidence that summer will come, and work off the tension by tempting, chasing, and dancing with the spirits.
Those who possess the interest and skill may dress in costume and impersonate various spiritual and mythical beings.
The caption says:
awámmíió jyRú.
maong úmúún njyréeLin.
Láá óngóa ljyruúw.
Coyote Talks is acting as a hawk.
Black Morning Glory is acting as the sun.
Cold Quail is acting as the wolf.
The hawk costume is made of feathers and talons. (The talons on this costume are actually the claws of a young bear.)
The essential component of any sun costume is the blindfold. When the sun visits the land in the form of an animal or person, he must keep his eyes closed or covered, or else his light would be visible. This particular costume also incorporates face paint, body paint, and a piece of clothing to cover Black Morning Glory's genitals -- not for modesty's sake, but to suggest the being's inherent sexlessness (thus dangerous exemption from the reproductive contract). Black Morning Glory carries a decorated ring to symbolize the sun's disc, and rides a bull deer "because it is impressive to the children", he says.
The alpha male wolf is a mythological villain. In one tale, he rapes a female badger to illegitmately create the race of coyotes. Cold Quail -- actually a woman -- here costumes herself to resemble the way the wolf is depicted in art: with a distinctive pattern of stripes, tufts of hair at elbows and knees, and an erect penis. Cold Quail's strap-on phallus is made of wood. She is holding a slaughtered rabbit, the wolf's traditional prey animal. (Wolves and rabbits were both created by the same star.)
amunrujówó múúnnú
the darkest night
Depending on the year's position within the lunar-solar cycle, it falls on various days around the end of the season of Rain and the beginning of the season of Grass. If the solstice is a new moon, the darkest night is celebrated the night after.
On this night, the moon has succeeded in persuading the sun to slow down, but the nights are still long, and when the moon turns her face away to observe the stars, various malignant spirits may be seen. But this is not a serious holiday like the solstice; the people have confidence that summer will come, and work off the tension by tempting, chasing, and dancing with the spirits.
Those who possess the interest and skill may dress in costume and impersonate various spiritual and mythical beings.
The caption says:
awámmíió jyRú.
maong úmúún njyréeLin.
Láá óngóa ljyruúw.
Coyote Talks is acting as a hawk.
Black Morning Glory is acting as the sun.
Cold Quail is acting as the wolf.
The hawk costume is made of feathers and talons. (The talons on this costume are actually the claws of a young bear.)
The essential component of any sun costume is the blindfold. When the sun visits the land in the form of an animal or person, he must keep his eyes closed or covered, or else his light would be visible. This particular costume also incorporates face paint, body paint, and a piece of clothing to cover Black Morning Glory's genitals -- not for modesty's sake, but to suggest the being's inherent sexlessness (thus dangerous exemption from the reproductive contract). Black Morning Glory carries a decorated ring to symbolize the sun's disc, and rides a bull deer "because it is impressive to the children", he says.
The alpha male wolf is a mythological villain. In one tale, he rapes a female badger to illegitmately create the race of coyotes. Cold Quail -- actually a woman -- here costumes herself to resemble the way the wolf is depicted in art: with a distinctive pattern of stripes, tufts of hair at elbows and knees, and an erect penis. Cold Quail's strap-on phallus is made of wood. She is holding a slaughtered rabbit, the wolf's traditional prey animal. (Wolves and rabbits were both created by the same star.)
