Navajo Wedding Basket

Made by Sally Black, 22" in Diameter.
 
Navajo Weddings Baskets are made with Yucca over willow rods. They are used in every major ceremony of the Navajo People including use by the medicine men and family matriarch during the home blessings. When blessing a new hogan, the woman sprinkles the cornmeal into the fire and recites the Navajo Beauty Way Prayer and says “may it be delightful for all who enter.” 
During the wedding ceremony the bride and groom feed each other corn meal mush from the basket. Traces of corn meal can be found in the baskets! 
 
The design depicts part of the Navajo creation story. The black terraced clouds indicate the deities and the Navajo believe that when two or terraced clouds come together it makes a holy place (center of basket).  The Navajo believe they came from the center of the earth (the underworld) through the passageway shown going through the red earth up to the upper world.