  Native American Drum Blessing Ceremony -ArticleNative American Drums are a very important part of Native life and culture. They are respected for their beauty and spiritual connection to nature and the drummer. Recently, we had the pleasure of helping a very special family with a 42" drum who wrote to share how much the drum meant to them and how their family had a drum blessing ceremony according to Native Tradition.
We opened it up carefully and assembled the drum on the stand. Beautiful
drum! Our children could not wait to try it out so we
went ahead and gave the drum a blessing ceremony the way it's done with
Native American Indians. And then, we played the drum.
It is loud! We would know because four out of five members of our family
are deaf. We are going to really enjoy this instrument for many years to
come.
I am thankful for the privilege of
purchasing such a wonderful drum. Not only is it crafted with
beautiful cedar but it has a powerful voice. We're very pleased with it. You
are more than welcome to share our comments with others so that they will
know about these wonderful drums.
As for the blessing ceremony we gave the drum it was done to purify the
drum
so that the voice that comes out of the drum will represent the good
things
that the Great Spirit has to share with us. To do so, we set the
drum
on native rugs surrounded by individual native mats for each drummer.
When
everything was set and ready, everyone left the room and then we
re-entered
the room with everyone walking in a straight line as we circled around
the
drum (clockwise pattern) until everybody had completely circled the
drum in
a complete way.
With each one of us standing before the drum I stood
toward
the east and lit up the tobacco / sage and used a dedicated feather to
fan
generated smoke toward the drum and then I would fan the smoke toward
the
east to thank the east for new life and hope. Then, we all would move to
our
left where I was facing the south as I fanned smoke toward the south to
thank it for the warmth, which represents growth and comfort.
Then we would move to our left again where I would face the west as I
fanned
smoke toward the west to thank it for the next life that the west
represents.
And finally we moved to our left to where I was facing the north,
fanned the smoke toward the direction to thank it for the cold
which it
produces and represents water and moisture that we receive.
As we all
circled
once more to our left I found myself facing the east again and I
started to
say a prayer. In this prayer we asked our grandmother (a native of
Cherokee
& Commache) to represent the voice of our drum. From there we felt the
presence of strong spirit knowing that the invitation had been
accepted. We
were so humbled by this experience. Needless to say that we found
ourselves
with tears of joy. From there I fanned the smoke toward the drum
once
more before I started to sprinkled dried tobacco and sage on the drum
from
all four directions as we circled the drum once again. And then,
afterwards,
we sat on our individual drumming mats, wanting to be as close to the
earth
rather than to be seated on a chair. Each one of us picked our drum
sticks
as we did this clockwise (left direction around the drum) I started
with the
first beat to be followed by the second beat by my wife, followed by our
eldest
daughter with the third beat, and then the fourth beat and fifth beat
were
done by my two boys. Then immediately afterwards we beat in
unity,
producing one of the most beautiful sounds we've heard in our house.
This
drumming lasted until around midnight as we found ourselves overjoyed
with
wonderful music that was so glorious in our deaf ears. The drum you
picked out for us has made us whole and complete. We thank you
for
that.
I'll be sure to let others know about this wonderful drum of the Tarahumara
Indians. All the best to you and yours, B. -Arizona. We would be very pleased to also help your family with Native American drums.
|