Culture Lesson

So lately I have seen many of Rachel's friends playing string games. I remember them a little bit from when I was little, cat's cradle, witches broom....okay that's all i remember. Anyway, the missionaries came over for dinner tonight and one of the Elders was showing Rach all kinds of cool tricks with string, a rug, two arrowheads, yada yada yada. So I asked him if it was a Navajo originated game. He said that he has heard stories that it is a winter game, and something to do with Spider Woman. So in an attempt to feel like I had a cultural lesson today--i did a little research (aka I googled it) and here is what I found.

In the Navajo tradition, the string games are only to be conducted in the winter and were given to the people by Spider Woman to help them keep their thinking in order, which would then help them to keep their lives in order.
They played string games in the winter only because winter is when spiders hibernate. It was believed that if anyone played string games outside of the winter season they would either be struck by lightening, fall off a horse or be urinated upon by spiders. There are about 75 figures that can be made, stars, birds, rockets, arrows, etc.

Rachel and I spent the evening trying to follow youtube string game videos. After about an hour-I finally figured out how to do jacob's ladder--yahoo!