Haitian Voodoo Flags

By Brad O'Neil



Haitian Voodoo Flags are symolic banners that serve a religious function in, obviously, Voodoo. Voodoo started in Western Africa, particularly Benin. It is a religion that highly emphasizes ancestry and has many gods and goddesses as well as earth and water spirits. Magic is also an important part of Voodoo traditions, and most practicers believe that the priests have magical abilities to heal people of sickness, or conversely to afflict them with curses.



Haitian voodoo, known as Vodou, is what became of the west African religion after the slave trade brought many of it's practicioners over to the New World. In the time since the 17th century, the Haitian version of Voodoo has become combined with Christianity to form a unique blend of cultures. Some gods and spirits took on new forms, and Catholic prayers were added. Also, many of the gods of the old Voodoo religion were given characteristics of particular Cathloic saints so that the Voodoo priests would not be persecuted by their Christian masters. Also, other aspects of the religion were brought in by the Taino, the native tribe of Haiti. When the cultures of Europe, Africa, amd the natives combined, the result was the current form of Vodou.



Voodoo flags are one of the new aspects added to Voodoo in the New World. They are highly stylized, and certain objects are meant to represent certain gods, for example, Agoue, the Lord of the Seas, is usually depicted as a boat. They are regarded as sacred, and when not in use they are stored in shrines. During ceremonies, they are carried out by priests and priestesses. Since the flags depict gods and spirits who are involed in these ceremonies, blessings are often made upon them. One of the more popular subjects is La Sirene, the mermaid.





...as you see.

Starting in the mid 1900's, people began designing Voodoo flags for non-religious purposes. Their designs had always been popular with the Haitian people and now people were making simply for art's sake. The difference between a flag intended for religious purposes and one that was make for art/design is usually easy to see. A flag designed for religious purposes tends to be simple in design and limited to a few highly-regarded subjects of religious importance:



Meanwhile, flags made for aesthetic purposes tend to stray from the Haitian mythology more, are often more complex in nature, and are often larger.



Even though the voodoo flag as an art form has become more and more accepted as a regular artform in it's non-religious versions, they are still highly valued in their religious aspect, and are still widely used in Vodou ceremonies.











Sources [/interesting]

http://www.artshaitian.com/Pages/flags.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo

http://www.galleryofwestindianart.com/voodooflags.html

http://www.shamanism.co.uk/with_ross_heaven.htm

http://www.haitianart.com