CUINARI (13 December). Dancing the hus'at'ik, “spiral-like circular dance”.
The ceremony starts with the offerings of walnuts and dry mulberries poured onto juniper branch fire. Then a long line of men, women and children held by their waists with a kind of knit ribbon, the shuman, start the hus'at'ik dance from uphill heading to Jes'tak Han temple in the village, moving their shoulders up and down while singing and chanting, with the leader of this serpent-like line struggling to move forward as he is dragged backward. After this commotion of moving into and out of the temple, they all dance in the open air singing, O may bayako! “Oh my beloved brother!”
Rushing uphill along mountain paths, a long line of
men, women and children, tied by the waist with a
knit ribbon, move towards the village to get to
Jes'tak Han temple.