Page 6 - AHATA

A14 LOCAL
Tuesday 3 december 2019

The hummingbird – our “Blenchi” Episode XLVI (46)

ORANJESTAD — The hummingbird symbolizes many different concepts,
due to its speed, the hummingbird is known as a messenger and guard-
ian of time. It also has meanings of love, joy and beauty.

The movements of the hummingbird created all things on Earth and each
symbolize infinity, eternity and conti- one was commissioned with a job.
nuity, it can fly back teaching us that When they finished they knew that
we can remember our past, howev- there was no one in charge of car-
er, this bird also teaches us that we rying their desires and thoughts from
should not insist on our past and we one place to another. As they no lon-
have to move on. ger had mud or corn to make another
The hummingbird drinks the nectar of animal, they took a jade stone and
flowers, which means that we must with it they carved a very small arrow.
savor every moment and appreciate When she was ready, they blew on
the things we love; it also teaches us her and the little arrow flew out. It was
the medicinal properties of plants and no longer an arrow, now it had life: the
how to work with the energy of flow- gods had created the x ts’unu’um,
ers to heal ourselves and others. that is, the hummingbird. Its feathers
The hummingbird has a very power- were so fragile and so light, that the
ful spiritual meaning. In the regions of hummingbird could approach the
the Andes in South America, the hum- most delicate flowers without mov-
mingbird means resurrection. ing a single petal. It shone under the
sun like raindrops and reflected all the
The hummingbird is the protector of colors.
the warriors and messenger of the Then, the men tried to catch that
gods. To show their importance, in this beautiful bird to decorate with its
case among the Aztecs, it is enough feathers. The Gods, seeing them, be-
to remember that it was the hum- came angry and said that if someone
mingbird that led them to Aztlan. dared to catch a hummingbird, they
This beautiful bird, which in Nahuatl is would be punished. That’s why hum- Pic. 2. Hummingbird artistic representations of an Aruban pictograph
called Huitzilin, is considered the na- mingbirds can’t be kept in cages. The recreated by our artist curator
hual of war. Gods created them to fly freely.

The old Maya`s tell us that the Gods Continued on Page 15

Pic.1. Male common Emerald Hummingbird in our garden at Etnia Nativa