Dear Family and Friends,
Yesterday was 2020, today is 2021! When I was younger, my sister, Renee and I were asked to babysit our Great Grandmother, Sophia Huff-Powless. Grandma Millie was going out to celebrate New Year’s Eve and didn’t want to leave 88 year old Sophia alone in their apartment. So, Renee and I spent the night with Sophia. I talk about this in my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me. We all went to bed around 9pm. Great Grandma Sophia went in one bedroom, we girls, in another. Soon, we all fell asleep. In the middle of the night Renee and I were woken up by someone yelling a strange word to us and knocking on our bedroom door! It was Great Grandma Sophia. She yelled, “Hoyan, hoyan!” We opened the door and she was smiling and screaming, “Hoyan!” She handed a gift to each of us, giggled and went back to her room, yelling, “Hoyan!” again. Renee and I looked at each other not really understanding what hoyan meant. Great Grandma Sophia had gifted me a scarf and Renee, gloves. Many years later we learned what this word, hoyan, meant. Hoyan meant “Happy New Year” to the Oneida and other Haudenosaunee Indigenous people.
Many, many years later I learned that Hoyan is a community event where children go door-to-door and offer well wishes and greetings while armed with a bag or pillow case. The community responds by offering the children a doughnut, cookie, fruit or some other delicious treat. It was similar to Halloween. You knocked on someone’s door, yelling “Hoyan” and someone gave you a treat. You usually got a treat.
I remember asking Grandma Millie about Hoyan. She remembers her family borrowing a farmer’s sleigh. Her and her siblings and father all piled into the sleigh. Grandpa Hyson drove the sleigh full of his kids, through Oneida. The kids yelled “Hoyan”, (Happy New Year) and received all kinds of treats from the neighbors, especially donuts! I asked Grandma Millie, “How did you stay warm in that sleigh on the winter morning of Hoyan?” She said that her father heated up bricks and put these bricks onto the sleigh. He gave us blankets We sat near the bricks and each other. This kept everyone warm. Below is the recipe for Hoyan Donuts to all of you! I took this recipe from the Oneida website. Since I am colonized, euro-white, I cannot read the Oneida words. I thank Our Creator the English translated words are also shared in this recipe. To all reading this, HOYAN!!!! Happy New Year to all and may 2021 we a kinder, gentler, safer year for everyone. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, Author of the book, Sky Woman Lives in Me and a proud member of the Oneida.
Sky Woman Lives in Me 