Anishinaabe Word of The Day

Butterfly (memengwaa)

Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran suborder Rhopalocera, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the superfamilies Hedyloidea (moth-butterflies in the Americas) and Papilionoidea (all others). The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though they likely originated in the Late Cretaceous, about 101 million years ago.[1]

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Anishinaabe Stories or Other Interesting Facts!

Butterfly Hide and Seek: Butterfly Hide and Seek was a quiet game. Children were taught never to hurt a butterfly. To the Ojibwa people, it was considered a gift of good luck if you stayed so quiet that a butterfly would trust you and land on you.

Little girls played the butterfly game. One girl covered her eyes and sang a song. “Butterfly, butterfly, show me where to go.” All the other little girls would quickly and quietly hide. The singer had to find them without saying another word. It was a game of skill. If you were observant, you could tell where people were hiding by the marks they left as they moved around.

Source:https://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/northeast/ojibwa/butterflygame.html

Related Words

Dazhwaangeni memengwaa wii-pazigwa’od.
A butterfly spreads its wings to take off.