Sámi people often wear their traditional Four Winds hat or čiehgahpir. The Four winds hat has two parts: a brimless side band that is topped by a four-cornered star-shaped crown. As with other parts of the Sámi traditional costume, the hat is decorated with different patterns that vary from community to community.
The legend associated with this hat is rather lovely. Here it is in its entirety:
A long, long time ago, perhaps thousands of years ago, or maybe a little longer, humans could not live in Sápmi. Do you know why? That was because all the four winds used to blow just whichever way they wanted to. One morning the world could be green and warm, the flowers were blooming and the sun was shining. But the next morning it could be cold and snowy outside as the winds were blowing hard from the north. Sometimes, all four winds blew at the same time.
Then one day a man came to the north, a shaman. He moved to Sápmi and built his tent, ignoring the four winds. But he was lonely: no wife, no children, no friends. Then the shaman lit a fire in his hut, and began to yoik (Sámi form of chanting) and play his drum as accompaniment. With his amazing yoiks, the Shaman called the four winds to come and see him in his hut. The shaman and the winds sat down by the fire. The hut was warm and the four winds all fell asleep. But the Shaman did not sleep, he put some more logs on the fire, and in the warm temperature the four winds began to shrink and shrink. Eventually they were so small that he could hold them in his hand. The shaman took off his hat, which at the time was shaped round like a normal hat. The shaman took the winds one at a time, put them in his hat, and then he tied the winds inside his hat.
On the next morning, the four winds woke up and found themselves caught inside the hat. They got annoyed and tried really hard to get out of the hat. They blew hard in all directions, but they could not escape. The winds inside the hat shouted “Let us out, let us out!” And the shaman said, “I will release you on one condition only: you have to make a promise that you all agree on. That when you blow, you do it one at a time, and the others will have to wait for their turn.” The winds promised and agreed to that in the future the North Wind would blow only in wintertime, the East Wind in the spring, the South Wind would blow warmly in the summer evenings in Sápmi, and in September the West wind would blow to herald the Autumn. As a reminder of this promise, the Shaman said to the four winds “From now on all the men in Sápmi would wear a four winds hat”. The Shaman waved goodbye to the four winds with his hat, which no longer looked the same after the capture of the four winds, it was now a pointed hat.
References
Adapted from http://grandma-in-lapland.com/tag/the-four-winds-hat/
Pictures
- Four winds hat – https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Sami_hat.jpg/1200px-Sami_hat.jpg
- Baby in four winds hat – https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*6Xsc08xF-Xj4z6Etf-wehA.jpeg
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