Blessingway

The Blessing Way is one half of the Navajo

Navajo people

The Navajo or Diné of the Southwestern United States are the second largest Native American tribe of Northern America. In the 2000 U.S. census, 298,197 people claimed to be fully or partly of Navajo ancestry. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo...

 song ceremonial complexes, the other half being the Enemy Way. The rites and prayers in the Blessing Way are concerned with healing, creation, harmony and peace. The song cycles recount the elaborate Navajo mythology related to the rites contained within the Blessing Way.

Perhaps the most important of all these rituals is the Kinaaldá ceremony, in which a young girl makes the transition to womanhood upon her menarche

Menarche

Menarche is the first menstrual cycle, or first menstrual bleeding in the females of human beings. From both social and medical perspectives it is often considered the central event of female puberty, as it signals the possibility of fertility...

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The Blessing Way is one half of the Navajo

Navajo people

The Navajo or Diné of the Southwestern United States are the second largest Native American tribe of Northern America. In the 2000 U.S. census, 298,197 people claimed to be fully or partly of Navajo ancestry. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo...

 song ceremonial complexes, the other half being the Enemy Way. The rites and prayers in the Blessing Way are concerned with healing, creation, harmony and peace. The song cycles recount the elaborate Navajo mythology related to the rites contained within the Blessing Way.

Rite of passage

Perhaps the most important of all these rituals is the Kinaaldá ceremony, in which a young girl makes the transition to womanhood upon her menarche

Menarche

Menarche is the first menstrual cycle, or first menstrual bleeding in the females of human beings. From both social and medical perspectives it is often considered the central event of female puberty, as it signals the possibility of fertility...

. During the course of the ceremony, the girl enacts the part of Changing Woman

Changing Woman

Changing Woman was Buffy Sainte-Marie's eleventh studio album and her second and last for MCA Records.Whereas her other MCA album, Buffy had been a continuation of the style of her last Vanguard albums, She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina, Moonshot and Quiet Places, Changing Woman was a return to...

, the deity responsible for fertility entering the world.

Ceremonies regarding expectant mothers are also part of the Blessing Way. However, these are not to be confused with some ceremonies held by other cultures for expectant mothers, which may also be called Blessing Way ceremonies regardless of their actual connection with the Blessing Way.