Navajo Baskets

 The Navajo Ceremonial Basket or Navajo Wedding Basket is one of the few baskets woven by Native Americans that is used in a ceremony. There are many interpretations for the basket designs.

Colors of the Navajo Wedding basket have symbolic meaning. White represents the Spirit World or clouds. Black represents darkness or mountains. Red symbolizes blood, the Navajo Hogan (home) and a rainbow of good luck. Inside the red band are the Sacred Mountains of Navajo land. Outside the red band are the mountains of clouds.

The main feature of the basket design is the “Pathway” (the opening in the basket design). A Navajo arrives into the world from the center of the basket and the Spirit World and always has a path to return to the Spirit World. During the wedding ceremony is pointed to the East and never pointed down.