(Josh Ryan/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

First Nations Christmas

Indigenous families honour Christmas and Solstice at this time of year

Dec 25, 2021 | 3:30 PM

During the Christmas season, our team at Pattison Media is once again producing positive stories based around holiday traditions and accomplishments for the region.

Angela Brown spoke to Floyd Favel of the Chief Poundmaker Museum and Gallery at Poundmaker Cree Nation, regarding the importance of the holidays for First Nations families.

First Nations families in the Battlefords area will celebrate Christmas with gift giving and enjoying a warm meal together around the table on Dec. 25.

Many families will also come together to honour the traditional Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year marked on Dec. 21, and the period to follow Solstice, from Dec. 22 to 25, when the days begin to grow longer again, as more sunlight returns to the sky. Indigenous people’s spirituality has a long connection to nature, and the changes of the seasons.

Floyd Favel, curator of the Chief Poundmaker Museum and Gallery, at Poundmaker Cree Nation, said this is an important time of the year for Indigenous families in many ways.

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“Prior to the modern day Christmas, Indigenous people celebrated the Solstice, and the four days after,” he said. “It was considered a rebirth period for the sun, a mythical rebirth, a mythical renewal. So four days after [Dec. 21] was the re-emergence of the sun as revived, rebirth, rejuvenated.”

Floyd Favel, left, shown with family friend Carrie LaFramboise, who is a descendant of Chief Poundmaker. (Submitted/Floyd Favel)

Favel said celebrating around this time of the year has always been part of Indigenous families’ customs.

Over 100 years ago when Canada was Confederated, following colonization, and Christianity was introduced, the Christmas holiday tradition “wasn’t such a foreign idea” to Indigenous peoples.

Favel said, as a result, Indigenous people “readily adapted” and started celebrating Christmas over the years.

“To this day, Indigenous people, Cree people, they very much value and respect this holiday Christmas season, with visiting, goodwill, positivity, and in some cases prayer ceremonies, sweat-lodges, and all that,” Favel said. “Prior to Christianity, it was a holy time, and to this day it is still a holy time.”

He said for many Indigenous families celebrating Winter Solstice has been overtaken by the Christmas holiday season festivities.

Indigenous people will eat the usual Christmas meals at this time of the year. But prior to Christianity, they would feast on more simpler foods from nature’s bounty, such as berries, meat, and water, in a ceremonial context.

Favel said he also still keeps with Indigenous traditions, along with Christmas celebrating.

To honour Solstice, he will offer prayers, and if possible attend a special ceremony.

“It will be prayers for the holiday season, this holy time,” Favel said. “And prayers for all people. Not just Indigenous people, but for all people. For peace on earth, because we always pray for peace on earth. And for a great future into the coming year.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow