Busk festival

North American Indian ritual

Also known as: Green Corn festival

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Last updated

June 22, 2026

Quick Summary

The term "busk" has multiple meanings. In the context of North American Indian rituals, a busk was a Creek Indian festival of first-fruits and purification. This celebration occurred when the first green corn was edible and marked the beginning of the new year. The word "busk" in this context originates from the Creek word puskita, meaning fasting.1

Other definitions of "busk" include a stiffening strip used in bodices and corsets from the 16th to 19th centuries, and a verb meaning to prepare, dress up, or adorn, particularly in dialectal British English.23

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Muscogee
Pre-colonial culture
…important religious observances as the Busk, or Green Corn, ceremony, an annual first-fruits and new-fire rite. A distinctive feature of this midsummer festival was that every wrongdoing, grievance, or crime—short of murder—was forgiven.
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…important religious observances as the Busk, or Green Corn, ceremony, an annual first-fruits and new-fire rite. A distinctive feature of this midsummer festival was that every wrongdoing, grievance, or crime—short of murder—was forgiven.
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Natchez
…midsummer Green Corn ceremony, or Busk. The sacred fire was remade at dawn of the festival day, and all the village hearths were then lit anew from the sacred flames.
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…midsummer Green Corn ceremony, or Busk. The sacred fire was remade at dawn of the festival day, and all the village hearths were then lit anew from the sacred flames.
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Indigenous peoples of the American Southeast
Belief systems
…the Green Corn ceremony, or Busk, throughout the Southeast. This was a major ceremonial suffused with an ethos of annual renewal in which the sacred fire—and often the hearth fire of each home—was rekindled; old debts and grudges were forgiven and forgotten; old clothing and stored food were discarded; and…
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…the Green Corn ceremony, or Busk, throughout the Southeast. This was a major ceremonial suffused with an ethos of annual renewal in which the sacred fire—and often the hearth fire of each home—was rekindled; old debts and grudges were forgiven and forgotten; old clothing and stored food were discarded; and…
Read More