The mesquite tree, made pliable by winter rains, is a necessary and timely tool for the women of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Now is the time for fashioning usiga sticks from mesquite branches, for play in the Nation’s ancient game called tóka. It would be easy to describe tóka simply as a women’s-only game, but that would belie the spirit in …
Archives for March 2014
Ancestors and Artifacts
Archaeology puts eyes on powerful messages left by our ancestors, who tell us through artifacts how they experience their folklife. The staff of Archaeology Southwest (http://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/) -- the Tucson-based nonprofit focused on preservation archaeology across the American southwest and Mexican northwest -- helps this BorderLore …
Spring Blooms at Mission Garden
Community Outreach manager Dena Cowan tells us that spring has arrived at the four-acre agricultural and cultural Mission Garden showcase, built on the original site of the San Agustin mission along the floodplains of the Santa Cruz nearby A Mountain. Her update follows: Gardens are ever-changing and evolving and Mission Garden is certainly …
Pysanka Eggs (Paska Blessings)
The egg figures prominently in creation stories, faith rituals and certainly in the colorful folk traditions of Easter eggs. Customs that most beautifully portray both Christian resurrection beliefs and the intricate details of Ukrainian decorated eggs are found in the Paska celebrations of St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church …
Deliverance (Passover)
Passover arrives on Monday, April 14 -- beginning a week of food and fest in Jewish households, much akin to the Yaqui and Christian Easter rituals of cleansing and rebirth. Passover in turn commemorates the exodus of the Hebrews from Egyptian captivity and the birth of the Jewish nation. There are symbolic foods (the matzo reminds us how the …
Adornment in African-American Tradition
The rites of Easter have deep roots -- from the Germanic goddess Ēostre’s connection with Easter hares, to 13th century egg-decorations, to seasonal pop culture. A most prominent secular symbol is the Easter bonnet, popularized in the 1948 Irving Berlin Easter Parade musical and engraved in Americana in the 1880s when, in New York City, after …