Voodoo In Haiti

Our essay is about voodoo as a religion in Haiti. And also we are going to talk about zombies because they take a big part in the practice of voodoos. Voodoo has been going on for more than 250 years and it is the main religion in Haiti, maybe around 95% of the population in the country is voodooist and the other 5% is Christianity.



Although millions still practice voodoo now a state allowed other religions in Haiti, some are turning their backs on the religion brought from Northern Africa, testing their faiths as their Caribbean nation grows with unsteadiness and poverty.Voodoo priests, priestesses, and witchdoctors collect together, on the lookout of patients, whose ills they claim they can cure with spells and herbal magic. Merchants sold everything from radios and clothes to straw hats and religious items like candles, perfumes, and images of their saints just to try to cure themselves from the sickness.

Voodoo is Haiti religion and it is taken seriously not only by no educated peasants, but also intelligent and educated members of the Haitian society. One of the most basic concepts of voodoo is that is that there is only one god, Bondye.There are three important categories of spiritual beings in voodoo: Iwa, the wins, and the dead.

Iwa are various spirits of family members and major forces of the Universe- good, evil, reproduction, health, all aspects of a daily life. Iwa interact with people of earth and during religious ceremonies they ride people ‘’mount’’, give messages and even cause various good and bad things to happen to people.

The Twins is a mysterious set of forces of contradictories: good and evil, happy and sad, etc. and of somebody is honored in religious services, he will have a better life.

The dead, according to which souls must be ‘’reclaimed’’ by the family members, in order for the family dead to be helpful, otherwise ignored family dead is dangerous.

The main activity of voodoo is healing people from illness, using herbs and faith healing with help of Iwa and other spirits.The priesthood of Voodoo consists of both Men (houngan) and women (Mambo) whose functions are healing performing religious ceremonies, telling the future and reading dreams, casting spells and creating protections. Another important feature in voodoo is the ‘’service’’, the religious rites of the religion. These usually held outside, under rough roof and around the ‘’poto mitan’’ the centre pole. Music by drums and dancing are essential to the whole service, and everybody present in the service fully participates.

In most services, the Iwa ‘’mount’’ people, i.e., they come and take over a person’s body for a time. When Iwa come, the person is gone. The body is the body of the person, but it is actually Iwa.Nearly every Voodoo service has animal sacrifice, as by killing the animal, one releases life. There are 2 types of Voodoo: Rada, Which accounts for about 95% of Voodoo and is a family of spirit with peaceful and happy Iwa, Petro (or Congo), which is a black magic Voodoo, with mean and nasty Iwa and death curses.

Some of the central Iwa in the Voodoo pantheon are:Legba: an old man who is the gate keeper between the world of earth and the world of the invisible (the spirits). The sun is one of the symbols.

Kalfu: is the Petro counterpoint of Legba, is a dangerous Iwa and the moon is a symbol.

Papa Ghede: Iwa of the death and resurrection, he is the lord of eroticism.

Dumballah: the father figure, he is the good snake, the sources of peace and tranquility.

Agwe: the sovereign of the seas.

Ogoun: the Warrior

Erzulie: the earth mother, the spirit of the goddess of love, she can read the future in dream, and it is a much loved Iwa.

Voodoo has a lot of fatalism, as Haitian people believe that Iwa determines out lives and that if you want to change anything in your life, you determines out lives and that if you want to change anything in your life’s, you cannot act on your own, but you must ask the Iwa.

Also, the Iwa are not very changeable. The things are the way they are because the Iwa has decided it. This fatalism contributes to the peasant’s unwillingness to struggle for liberation.

Bibliography

• Bob Corbett, (March 1988), Introduction To Voodoo In Haiti, http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/voodoo/overview.html

My weekend 7th-8th February 2009

Saturday














On Saturday morning, I woke up and I went to my young cousin's house because he had his birthday party. I was bored and didn't know what to do because there were only small kids there. I asked my older cousin if there was anything I could help him with for the party and told me they needed lemons to make lemonade, so I climbed on the lemon tree and cut off some lemons!











My young brother, Athos, helped me put the lemons in the bucket, by holding it up. When I was finally finished, we took the lemons I gathered to the kitchen. My aunt put them in the lemon squeezer to get the lemon juice out and make lemonade.












Later, my older cousin and I, both did some gardening for his house. Their bush needed to be cleared because it was growing wild and so my couisin and I started cutting them. It was the first time I did something like this, and I realized that being a gardener is actually a harder job than it seems! Even though it was tiring, I was really excited to cut the leaves off the bush!














After doing the gardening, the next job on the list was to fix some broken windows on the house. My cousin and I both carried ladders and put them on the wall so that we could climb and fix them. I was really scared because I am afraid of heights, but I did it and I saw that it wasn't that scary after all.











The last job we had to do was to dig the trees of their garden and also to shave their grass. I really enjoyed shaving it, even though I destroyed half of their flowers! After a lot of hard work and dedication, we were finally over and we could enjoy the rest of the day eating cakes and pizza from my young cousin's party inside the house.















Finally, it was time for my young cousin to blow the candles. We all gathered around him and started singing happy birthday to him. It was really strange being the tallest amongst all of them! After I finished singing, I started to eat pizza and cake because I was exhausted from all the work.












After all that ''fun'', I finally went home. I needed something to relax and so I decided I was going to play some guitar so that I could practice for next day's concert as well. I sat on my bed, plugged my guitar on my marshall amp and sarted playing my solos and riffs! It was really nice because every time I play the guitar I escape from my mother's screaming and shouting and I totally relax.





Sunday








The next day at 2:30 was the concert. I got quite nervous before going to the concert. I played my guitar for last time on the morning before I went, I dressed up and I went. Me and Mr. Kostas, my teacher, brought our amplifiers and we put them on stage. Everything was ready to begin and so I took my place and waited for Mr. Kostas to start playing.








I played a couple of songs and I was driving everyone crazy with my solos! I didn't expect to play like that, beacause when I started playing I was relieved from all the stress that I was feeling before. I really enjoyed playing and I think the audience enjoyed listening to me too!
It was such a special weekend doing extraordinary things, but I really had fun!