https://hubpages.com/hub/Native-American-Harvest-Feasts

Native American Harvest Feasts Before Thanksgiving


By Patty Inglish, MS

It's Always Thanksgiving Somewhere

Native American Nations from the First Nations in Canada to the Native Americans in the USA to the Indigenous Peoples in Mexico and Central and South America are related to all of the Circumpolar Peoples around the world. All of them have traditions of thankfulness or thanksgiving for surviving winter and for receiving crops and game for their hard work
The Harvest Moon Festival

This is the Thanksgiving of September when a full harvest of corn, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, fish, and small game. and other foods are gathered together. Originally, the Native Americans thanked every living thing around them for helping them to live through sacrificing themselves to be food and clothing. This is similar in part to the Animistic religion of early Korea and some other Asian nations, in which all living things have a spirit. With Native Americans, the animals and crops were not worshipped, but they were thanked. Festivites have included a lot of dancing, dancing contests now held at Pow Wows, singing, drumming circles, games, and other activities.

This holiday has historically presented thankfulness for life, food, shelter, and clothing. The Great Spirit, a single God, was thanked for all of it. After this celebration, hunting big game for the winter food supply began at full force.

Native American Harvest Feasts Before Thanksgiving
However, Autumn seems nearly always to have been the time of THREE Native Nations thanksgivings ... Tibet - Harvest Moon - Steps Similar to Native American ...
hubpages.com/hub/Native-American-Harvest-Feasts - 38k



AND
Autumn=u-la-go-hv-s-di
The color for West is Black which represents death.
Autumn is the final harvest; the end of Life's Cycle.
The Cherokee word for West is wu-de-li-gv.

RED was symbolic of success. It was the color of the war club used to strike an enemy in battle as well as the other club used by the warrior to shield himself. Red beads were used to conjure the red spirit to insure long life, recovery from sickness, success in love and ball play or any other undertaking where the benefit of the magic spell was wrought.

BLACK was always typical of death. The soul of the enemy was continually beaten about by black war clubs and enveloped in a black fog. In conjuring to destroy an enemy, the priest used black beads and invoked the black spirits-which always lived in the West,-bidding them to tear out the man's soul and carry it to the West, and put it into the black coffin deep in the black mud, with a black serpent coiled above it.

BLUE symbolized failure, disappointment, or unsatisfied desire. To say "they shall never become blue" expressed the belief that they would never fail in anything they undertook. In love charms, the lover figuratively covered himself with red and prayed that his rival would become entirely blue and walk in a blue path. "He is entirely blue, " approximates meaning of the common English phrase, "He feels blue. "The blue spirits lived in the North.

WHITE denoted peace and happiness. In ceremonial addresses, as the Green Corn Dance and ball play, the people symbolically partook of white food and, after the dance or game, returned along the white trail to their white houses. In love charms, the man, to induce the woman to cast her lost with his, boasted, "I am a white man," implying that all was happiness where he was. White beads had the same meaning in bead conjuring, and white was the color of the stone pipe anciently used in ratifying peace treaties. The White spirits lived in the South.

Two numbers are sacred to the Cherokee. Four is one number, it represented the four primary directions. At the center of their paths lays the sacred fire. Seven is the other and most sacred number. Seven is represented in the seven directions: north, south, east, west, above, bellow, and "here in the center" the place of the sacred fire. Seven also represented the seven ancient ceremonies that formed the yearly Cherokee religious cycle.
https://users.ap.net/~chenae/spirit.html
LOTS more to read...

Just Looking For Some Peace

"So live your life so the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their views, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and of service to your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a stranger if in a lonely place. Show respect to all people, but grovel to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life and strength.

Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself. Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes wise ones turn to fools and robs them of their visions.

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.

Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home."

Tecumseh