nature’s a beautiful thing. We don’t think we’re going out on any limbs here. It nourishes us, it calms us, and it surrounds us with awe-inspiring wonder. Way back before we had computers and cars and grocery stores, nature was an even more important force in people’s lives. Sure, we still depend on nature today, but we’re just not as aware of how important it is in everything we do. Today, our closest brush with natural wonder might come in the form of a background display pic for our smartphone.
It was different in the past, though. Just ask the Native Americans, whose rituals and ceremonies often gave props to the natural world. The “Twelfth Song of Thunder” is one example of that. It’s a Navajo poem that celebrates the sky, the land, and the creatures of the earth. It’s also a chant that is sung as part of a traditional Navajo Mountain Chant ceremony. This ceremony, which has been performed for centuries, was traditionally done to bring about rain. Back in the days when rain meant the difference between life and death (because, hey—no rain meant no crops to eat), people sang to, and about, nature in order to get it to cooperate.
The fact is that, for the native Navajo—who lived before the coming of Europeans—nature was everything. So why not sing to it, flatter it, and make it feel good about itself, so that it could give folks what they wanted? “Twelfth Song of Thunder” is a great example of the way that the Navajo relate to nature, and it reflects what an important part nature plays in their culture.
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