Haitians gather for Easter Voodoo ceremonies

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times, False Religions, False gods

Haitians gather for Easter Voodoo ceremonies*

Associated Press

SOUVENANCE, Haiti — Every year in early April, scores of Voodoo
followers flock to a dusty village and surrender themselves to the
spirits in a pilgrimage marked by drumming, chanting and animal sacrifices.

Wrapped in white satin scarves, hundreds of pilgrims from across Haiti
made the journey this year to Souvenance, 145 kilometres north of
Port-au-Prince, for a five-day cycle of ceremonies that culminated late
Sunday.

Voodoo is the underpinning of Haitian culture, offering an array of gods
for believers, style and subject matter for artists and for some
politicians a means of controlling the people.

Founded by ex-slaves from the kingdom of Dahomey — now the West African
nation of Benin — Souvenance is home to one of Voodoo's most important
rituals, which coincides with the faith's annual Rara carnival, when
bands of costumed drummers and dancers roam the countryside.

A woman bathes inside a muddy pool of water considered to be sacred
during a Voodoo ceremony in Souvenance, a village 145 kilometres north
of Port-au-Prince. Ariana Cubillos/AP

At Souvenance, followers chant and dance to appease Voodoo's pantheon of
spirits, called loas. Church leaders often sacrifice a bull or goat to
honour the warrior-spirit Ogoun.

Voodoo is one of Haiti's three constitutionally recognized religions,
along with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

A large number of Voodoo priests, or oungons, worked closely with
Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude during the 29-year
family dictatorship that ended in 1986.