The ceremonial year of the Hopis begins in November with a New-fire ceremony which assumes two forms, elaborate and abbreviated. The elaborate form, given every fourth year, is very complicated, owing to the initiation of novices into the fraternities. Following this precedent, the rites of the winter solstice (Soyaluña), Powamû, and Palülükoñti are celebrated in extenso in those years. The elaboration or abbreviation of the New-fire ceremony, which opens the calendar, thus profoundly affects all festivals of the remainder of the year.
There are also several other variations in the calendar, due to the celebration of either the Snake or Flute festival, which alternate with each other. Thus in odd years there is in January an assemblage of the Snake fraternity, while in even years the Flute priests have a meeting in the same month. There are likewise certain minor modifications in other ceremonies in those years in which the Flute and Snake ceremonies, respectively, are celebrated.
It must be borne in mind that the Hopis are ignorant of the Roman names of months, January, February, and the like, but these names are introduced in the following pages for convenience in reducing their calendar to our own. Their months often take the names of the ceremonies which occur in them.
The four seasons, summer, autumn, and winter, have no equivalents among the Hopi so far as is known. The Hopi year has two divisions, which may be designated that of the named and that of the nameless moons; the former is the cold period, the latter is the warm—roughly speaking, they are winter and summer. These divisions may be called the greater and less periods, as the former begins in August and ends in March. In the first occur the greater, in the other the other the lesser mysteries (see below. Classification of Festivals), although this practice is sometimes reversed.
Classification of Festivals
As has been noted, the ceremonies in the Hopi calendar vary in complexity as a result of the initiation of novices into the priesthoods, which occurs about every four years.
In addition to this quadrennial variation there is a lesser and greater celebration of the same festival each year, which are ordinarily six months apart, the lesser being generally in winter. The adjective "elaborate" will be applied to those quadrennial festivals which are celebrated in extenso, "abbreviated" being applied to the smaller celebrations in intervening years; the two yearly presentations will be known as the greater and lesser mysteries.
