VoodooVoodoo comes from Africa but the main structure was born in Haiti, it developed in the African culture by the European colonist's slave trading. By trying to keep the tribes separated the colonists inadvertently helped the transplanted Africans to find a common thread through their faith. The slaves began to invoke not only their own gods but also those of the different tribes, they soon began to modify the rituals of the other tribes and combine them with their own. This created a new religion-voodoo. What is the essence of voodoo? In the voodoo society they believe that there are no accidents, that the entire universe is one that each thing that is done affects something else. So what it means is that what you do to someone else you do to yourself as well. Voodoo ceremonies believe that the spirits of ancestors can bring either good or harm and thus must be honored in these ceremonies. Their rituals include prayers, dancing and singing and animal sacrifice as an offering for the spirits. Voodoo translated means the snake under whose auspices gather all that share the faith; this is why the snake figures heavily in the voodoo faith. Practitioners believe that the spirit of the snake possesses their high priestess or priest showing the snakes power. There are many spirits that are believed to possess the faithful during the voodoo ceremonies. Music and dance play a big part in the ceremonies, it is an expression of spirituality and is a connection between the believer and the spirit world. |
