I chose to discover the culture of Haitians who follow Vodou, a religion also referred to as Voodoo, Vodun, Vodoun, Voudun, and Yoruba Orisha. I have just returned from a vacation in the Caribbean (Punta Cana, Dominican Republic), which shares an island with Haiti. Whereas there, I met a person from Haiti and was reminded of a bizarre expertise I had in 1998 after I was ridden by an orisha (loa) throughout an inside-city Christian church service. Thus, I assumed this may make an interesting topic for this assignment. To make issues easier in this essay, I will refer to this group merely as Vodou or Vodoun.
Introducing Vodou and Haitian Culture
Vodou is a Caribbean faith blended from African religions and Catholic Christianity. Long stereotyped by the skin world as “black magic,” Vodoun clergymen and priestesses are additionally diviners, healers, and religious leaders, who derive most of their earnings from healing the sick somewhat than from attacking targeted victims.
Vodou comes from an African word for “spirit” and could be straight traced to the West African Yoruba individuals who lived in 18th and 19th century Dahomey. Nevertheless, its African roots could go back 6,000 years. At present, Vodou is practiced mostly in the nation of Haiti and in the United States round New Orleans, New York, and in Florida. At present over 60 million individuals follow Vodou all through the Caribbean and West Indies islands, in addition to in North and South America, Africa, and Britain.
Throughout days of slave commerce, this faith fused with Catholic Christianity. Due to this fact, in this current century, youngsters born into rural Haitian households are generally baptized into the Vodou faith in addition to in the Catholic church.
Those that follow Vodou believe in a pantheon of gods who management and represent the legal guidelines and forces of the universe. In this pantheon, there is a Supreme Deity and the Loa-a big group of lesser deities equivalent to the saints of the Catholic Church. These gods shield individuals and give special favors through their representatives on earth that are the hougans (clergymen) and mambos (priestesses).
The Loa (additionally Lwa or L’wha) are spirits somewhat like saints or angels in Christianity. They’re intermediaries between the Creator and humanity. Not like saints or angels, they don’t seem to be merely prayed to; they are served. They’re each distinct beings with their own private likes and dislikes, distinct sacred rhythms, songs, dances, ritual symbols, and special modes of service.
Rituals, Behaviors, and Practices Associated with Loss of life and Dying
Haitians who adhere to Vodou don’t take into account death to be the top of life. They do believe in an afterlife. Followers of Vodoun believe that every individual has a soul that has both a gros bon ange (large soul or common life force), and a ti bon ange (little soul or the individual soul or essence.)
When one dies, the soul essence hovers close to the corpse for seven to nine days. Throughout this period, the ti bon ange is susceptible and could be captured and made into a “religious zombie” by a sorcerer. Provided the soul is not captured, the priest or priestess performs a ritual known as 9 Night time to sever the soul from the body so the soul could live at midnight waters for a 12 months and a day. If this isn’t executed, the ti bon ange could wander the earth and bring misfortune on others.
After a 12 months and a day, family members of the deceased perform the Ceremony of Reclamation to lift the deceased individual’s soul essence and put it in a clay jar referred to as a govi. The belief that every individual’s life experiences could be handed on to the household or community compels Haitians to implore the spirit of the decease to briefly possess a family member, priest (houngan), or priestess (mambo) to impart any closing phrases of wisdom.
The clay jar may be positioned in the houngan’s or mambo’s temple the place the household could come to feed the spirit and deal with it like a divine being. At different times, the houngan burns the jar in a ritual known as boule zen. This releases the spirit to the land of the dead, the place it should correctly reside. Another way to elevate the ti-bon-ange is to interrupt the jar and drop the pieces at a crossroad.
The ultimate objective of death rituals in the Vodoun culture is to send the gros-bon-ange to Ginen, the cosmic community of ancestral spirits, the place will probably be worshipped by family members as a loa itself. Once the ultimate ritual is finished, the spirit is free to abide among the many rocks and timber until rebirth. Sixteen incarnations later, spirits merge into the cosmic energy.
Here are some other frequent behaviors related to death in the Haitian culture:
· When death is impending, all the household will collect, pray, cry, and use non secular medallions or different religious artifacts. Family and friends expend appreciable effort to be present when death is near.
· Haitians prefer to die at house, however the hospital is also an acceptable choice.
· The second of death is marked by ritual wailing amongst family members, friends, and neighbors.
· When a person dies, the oldest family member makes all the arrangements and notifies the family. The body is kept until all the household can gather.
· The final bath is often given by a household member.
· Funerals are important social events and contain a number of days of social interaction, together with feasting and the consumption of rum.
· Members of the family come from far away to sleep on the house, and friends and neighbors congregate in the yard.
· Burial monuments and different mortuary rituals are sometimes pricey and elaborate. People are increasingly reluctant to be buried underground. They prefer to be interred above ground in an elaborate multi-chambered tomb which will value greater than the house through which the individual lived whereas alive.
· Because the body is regarded as necessary for resurrection, organ donation and cremation usually are not allowed. Post-mortem is allowed only if the death occurred on account of fallacious doing or to substantiate that the body is definitely dead and not a zombie.
Like many Western Christian religions that use a figurative sacrifice to represent the consumption of flesh and blood, some Vodoun ceremonies embody a literal sacrifice through which chickens, goats, doves, pigeons, and turtles are sacrificed to rejoice births, marriages, and deaths.
Vodou Beliefs about Afterlife
Practitioners of Vodou assume that the souls of all the deceased go to an abode beneath the waters. Concepts of reward and punishment in the afterlife are alien to Vodou.
In Vodou, the soul continues to live on earth and may be used in magic or it may be incarnated in a member of the dead individual’s family.
Communion with a god or goddess occurs in the context of possession. The gods sometimes work through a govi, and sometimes take over a living person. This exercise is known as “mounting a horse” throughout which the individual loses consciousness and the body turns into briefly possessed by a loa. A special priest (houngan) or priestess (mambo) assists both in summoning the divinities and in serving to them to depart on the termination of the possession.
The gros-bon-ange returns to the high photo voltaic regions from which its cosmic power was first drawn; there, it joins the opposite loa and turns into a loa itself.
Variations
Each group of worshipers is independent and there is no central organization, non secular leader, or set of dogmatic beliefs. Rituals and ceremonies range relying upon household traditions, regional variations, and exposure to the practices of different cultures resembling Catholicism, which is the official faith of Haiti.
Some Haitians believe that the dead live in close proximity to the loa, in a spot known as “Under the Water.” Others maintain that the dead have no special place after death.
Burial ceremonies range in response to local tradition and the status of the person. Some households don’t specific grief aloud until many of the deceased’s possessions have been removed from the home. Persons who are educated in the funeral customs wash, dress, and place the body in a coffin. Mourners wear white clothes which represents death. A priest may be summoned to conduct the burial service. The burial often takes place inside 24 hours.
Conclusion
Westerners, or so-known as logical individuals, would possibly discover Vodoun a wierd and unique mixture of spells, possessions, and rituals. Like some other faith, its objective is to comfort individuals by giving them a common bond. Vodoun meshes surprisingly nicely with Catholicism, the official faith of Haiti. With a supreme being, saint-like spirits, belief in the afterlife and invisible spirits, along with the protection of patron saints, Voodoo is not that different from conventional religions.
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