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Celebrate the solstice
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| Two of the members of Yarina, the Ecuadorian music and dance troupe who will be performing for the Inti Raymi Summer Solstice Fiesta Saturday at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park. (Contributed photo) |
Festival takes place Saturday in Hudson
By John Mason
HUDSON — The summer solstice will be celebrated from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park with music by Yarina and others, as well as dancing and crafts.
Yarina is a group of 10 brothers and sisters from Otavalo, Ecuador who won the 2005 Nammy, the Native American Music Award, for Best World Music and Best Folk Music Recording.
The festivities are free of charge and are sponsored by the Columbia County Council on the Arts, Yarina and the city of Hudson.
Starting at 3 p.m., there will be a parade of children, parents and friends waving colorful banners and playing music to welcome summer’s arrival from Time & Space, Ltd. on Columbia Street down to Warren Street and down to Front Street, ending at the park.
At 5 p.m., there will be an opening ritual, offering gratitude to the Pachamama, or Mother Earth, for all of her bounty, as well as to each of the four elements.
The Hudson solstice celebration originated in a long tradition dating back to the childhood of David Gallardo of Harlemville, who was raised in the highlands of Ecuador. When Gallardo came to this country more than 20 years ago, he brought his customs with him.
For more than two decades, he celebrated the solstice with family and friends in Hillsdale. In 2007, the celebration moved into the larger community of Columbia County in what was then called Hudson’s Waterfront Park. This will be the third year the event has taken place there.
“The earth has three simultaneous movements,” Gallardo wrote in a 2007 essay titled “The Summer Solstice: Inti Raymi,” “the rotation around its own axis in 24 hours, its journey around the sun in an elliptical path in one year, and the tilting of its northern hemisphere to its closest point towards the sun on June 21.
“When the earth tilts towards the sun in this way on June 21, the summer solstice occurs,” he wrote. “The opposite occurs when the northern hemisphere tilts farthest from the sun on Dec. 21. This is called the winter solstice.”
Gallardo then went on to explain the significance of this cosmic event to his native culture.
“For millennia, the indigenous cultures of the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, South America were guided by the rhythmical movements of La Pachamama — Mother Earth, Taita Inti — Father Sun, and Mamaquilla — Mother Moon, for the planting of their crops,” he wrote. “Their senses were totally in tune with these cosmic rhythms.
“Before the Spaniards came to South America, the Inti Raymi Festival was the most important celebration of the year for the indigenous peoples of la sierra, the highlands,” Gallardo stated. “To this day, it continues to be highly important in the cycle of the year of the people. As you read this, la gente, the people, of the highlands of Ecuador are making preparation for Inti Raymi.”
The Catholic Church, he said, called the event La Fiesta de San Juan Bautista, or St. John the Baptist’s Day.
“I recall as a child growing up in Ecuador on an hacienda — large farm — in the mountains,” he wrote. “It was two months before the festival, and I could smell the air was different and knew in my young soul that something very special was happening in the preparations for Inti Raymi. The whole country, mestizos and indigenous peoples, would celebrate this time of the year separately and together.
“I could hear the first sounds of a flute and a drum echoing through the hills. As the day of the festival drew near, more musicians and dancers came together and would go from house to house in the indigenous neighborhoods celebrating the festival to Taita Inti with music and dance and with specially prepared foods from freshly harvested grains,” Gallardo wrote. “A sacred drink called chicha, made from carefully fermented grains of corn, was offered to the musicians and dancers to give them the strength and stamina to continue dancing and playing music for the duration of the festival, which lasts for seven days and seven nights.
“In Otavalo,” he stated, “a town in northern Ecuador, before participating in the sacred festival to the sun, the dancers and musicians bathe in icy cold rivers and waterfalls in order to purify themselves and to receive the strength and energy from the waters that will be required of them to fulfill their special task.
“The dancers, who pound the earth with bare feet, are said to be caressing La Pachamama in the hope that she will provide their people with a plentiful harvest for the next year,” Gallardo stated. “Many years later, a friend who is a dancer told me that he prepared inwardly for months in order to be a worthy representative of this sacred ritual for his community. It is considered a highly spiritual task to be a dancer for Taita Inti. The dancers represent different characteristics of the human being and his relation to the cosmos.”
As an example, Gallardo cited the Haya Humas. Their colorful masks have two faces, representing human duality, 12 horns, symbolizing the 12 constellations and the 12 months.
“The most highly developed individual of the community, the initiate, who is said to have the power to communicate with the sun god, wears a royally ornate mask and headdress adorned in golden shining discs, which reflect the heavenly light of Taita Inti,” he stated. “The Haya Humas are the guardian of the high initiate and dance around him in lemniscates [figure eights], spirals and circles, which are sacred forms of protection, as he walks through the streets of the village to the main plaza where a special ritual will take place before the festivities begin.”
For more information, call Gallardo at 518-361-0905, the CCCA at 518-671-6213, or visit www.artscolumbia.org or www.yarinamusic.com.
By John Mason
HUDSON — The summer solstice will be celebrated from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park with music by Yarina and others, as well as dancing and crafts.
Yarina is a group of 10 brothers and sisters from Otavalo, Ecuador who won the 2005 Nammy, the Native American Music Award, for Best World Music and Best Folk Music Recording.
The festivities are free of charge and are sponsored by the Columbia County Council on the Arts, Yarina and the city of Hudson.
Starting at 3 p.m., there will be a parade of children, parents and friends waving colorful banners and playing music to welcome summer’s arrival from Time & Space, Ltd. on Columbia Street down to Warren Street and down to Front Street, ending at the park.
At 5 p.m., there will be an opening ritual, offering gratitude to the Pachamama, or Mother Earth, for all of her bounty, as well as to each of the four elements.
The Hudson solstice celebration originated in a long tradition dating back to the childhood of David Gallardo of Harlemville, who was raised in the highlands of Ecuador. When Gallardo came to this country more than 20 years ago, he brought his customs with him.
For more than two decades, he celebrated the solstice with family and friends in Hillsdale. In 2007, the celebration moved into the larger community of Columbia County in what was then called Hudson’s Waterfront Park. This will be the third year the event has taken place there.
“The earth has three simultaneous movements,” Gallardo wrote in a 2007 essay titled “The Summer Solstice: Inti Raymi,” “the rotation around its own axis in 24 hours, its journey around the sun in an elliptical path in one year, and the tilting of its northern hemisphere to its closest point towards the sun on June 21.
“When the earth tilts towards the sun in this way on June 21, the summer solstice occurs,” he wrote. “The opposite occurs when the northern hemisphere tilts farthest from the sun on Dec. 21. This is called the winter solstice.”
Gallardo then went on to explain the significance of this cosmic event to his native culture.
“For millennia, the indigenous cultures of the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, South America were guided by the rhythmical movements of La Pachamama — Mother Earth, Taita Inti — Father Sun, and Mamaquilla — Mother Moon, for the planting of their crops,” he wrote. “Their senses were totally in tune with these cosmic rhythms.
“Before the Spaniards came to South America, the Inti Raymi Festival was the most important celebration of the year for the indigenous peoples of la sierra, the highlands,” Gallardo stated. “To this day, it continues to be highly important in the cycle of the year of the people. As you read this, la gente, the people, of the highlands of Ecuador are making preparation for Inti Raymi.”
The Catholic Church, he said, called the event La Fiesta de San Juan Bautista, or St. John the Baptist’s Day.
“I recall as a child growing up in Ecuador on an hacienda — large farm — in the mountains,” he wrote. “It was two months before the festival, and I could smell the air was different and knew in my young soul that something very special was happening in the preparations for Inti Raymi. The whole country, mestizos and indigenous peoples, would celebrate this time of the year separately and together.
“I could hear the first sounds of a flute and a drum echoing through the hills. As the day of the festival drew near, more musicians and dancers came together and would go from house to house in the indigenous neighborhoods celebrating the festival to Taita Inti with music and dance and with specially prepared foods from freshly harvested grains,” Gallardo wrote. “A sacred drink called chicha, made from carefully fermented grains of corn, was offered to the musicians and dancers to give them the strength and stamina to continue dancing and playing music for the duration of the festival, which lasts for seven days and seven nights.
“In Otavalo,” he stated, “a town in northern Ecuador, before participating in the sacred festival to the sun, the dancers and musicians bathe in icy cold rivers and waterfalls in order to purify themselves and to receive the strength and energy from the waters that will be required of them to fulfill their special task.
“The dancers, who pound the earth with bare feet, are said to be caressing La Pachamama in the hope that she will provide their people with a plentiful harvest for the next year,” Gallardo stated. “Many years later, a friend who is a dancer told me that he prepared inwardly for months in order to be a worthy representative of this sacred ritual for his community. It is considered a highly spiritual task to be a dancer for Taita Inti. The dancers represent different characteristics of the human being and his relation to the cosmos.”
As an example, Gallardo cited the Haya Humas. Their colorful masks have two faces, representing human duality, 12 horns, symbolizing the 12 constellations and the 12 months.
“The most highly developed individual of the community, the initiate, who is said to have the power to communicate with the sun god, wears a royally ornate mask and headdress adorned in golden shining discs, which reflect the heavenly light of Taita Inti,” he stated. “The Haya Humas are the guardian of the high initiate and dance around him in lemniscates [figure eights], spirals and circles, which are sacred forms of protection, as he walks through the streets of the village to the main plaza where a special ritual will take place before the festivities begin.”
For more information, call Gallardo at 518-361-0905, the CCCA at 518-671-6213, or visit www.artscolumbia.org or www.yarinamusic.com.
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