...essed during colonial times hen the priests ere either killed or imprisoned. The Dahomean ere forced to create Voodoo Orders or underground societies and so to continue to orship their ancestors and their poerful gods. It as again supressed during Marxist regime. In Benin, for exemple, the Vodun religion is freely practiced since1989 and since 1996 it is formely recognized as Benins official religion. It is also folloed by most adults in Haiti. It can be found in many large cities in North America, particularly in American South. It is laso related to other religions such as santeria in Cuba, Shango in Trinidad, condomble, xango, macumba and batuque in Brazil, obeaj in Jamaica.All the Vodun practicers orship three goups of spirits the saintsalso knon as loa , the ancestors and the tins marassa. The loa are often associated ithcatholic saints and African tribal deities and many combine characteristics of both, as the indentification of St.Patrick ith a native sake deity. Individuals inherit the obligation to orship a particula r loa, as ell as the family dead and the spirits of the tins among the ancestors. There is no hierarchy of priests and no centralised control, and the cult groups are aided to do rituals by priests also called hungan or priestesses mambo but not necessarely. As ell as the Catholics, the Vodun belief includes a chief God Olorum, ho is remote and unknoable. He authorised a lesser God Obatala to create the earth and rhe life forms. A battle beteen the to gods led to Obatalas temporary banishment. The spirits hich originated from Dahomey are called rada those ho ere added later are often deceased headers in the ne orld and are called Petro.Folloers of Vodun believe that each person has a soul hich is composed of to parts a gros bon ange or big guardian angel and a ti bon ange, meaning little guardian angel.Although the African and Haitian Vodun have the same source, along the time little differences apeared. I ould say African Vodun is more agressive but of course is just my opinion.The African folloers rely on unseen forces to govern their orld and their lives. Most of est Africas 2.5 million Ee are devout believers. The coastal people learn from childhood to honor their divinities. Parents use voodoo to teach their children ho to behave and hat the comunity expects of them. Each morning orshipers make an offering to the local god, asking for guidance.There are voodoo healing hospitals ere all kind of cures can be found, from cures for leprosy to ones for paralysis. In these hospitals there are shrines of the loa and the doctors invoke their spirits. One declared The gods protect us. They direct our actions and tell us hich medicines to take so no harm can come to us. But the shrines are a little bit funny they smoke, drink gin and smell good.Every three years, in May, a seven-day celebration is held and the meeting place hundreds of orshipers from area villages come and pay homage Flimani koku, the healing god. During the celebration eird things happen ith the help of our gods as they say a man brings a heated knife to his tongue but after several repetitions, his tongue doesnt even redden. Only for the strangers this things seem eird but for the participants it seems normal.During the ritual a feast has to be prepared and a chiken has to be killed on the forehead of a boy and cooked in a cabalash. Before this the Kokuzun participants follo the deities command Do not have sex or eat goat meat for to eeks before the celebration, and come ith a clean heart.Haitian Voodoo rituals involve a feast before the main ceremony and a dance. The dancing ill typically build in intensity until one of the dancers usually a hounsis- students studying Vodun becomes possesed by o loa and falls. His or her ti bon ange has left their body and the spirit has taken control. The possesed dancer ill behave as the loa and is treated ith respect and ceremony by the present. hile they are possessed they may alk, dance, eat and even give advice to and prescribe cures for ill. A possessed individual is knon as the deitys horse and the deity is said to mount his horse. At the end of the possession the horse is expected to have no memory of the experience. The dance and the hole ritual is accompanied by a lot of drumming and singing. The drummings and the songs must be appropriate for the particular group of spirits to be invoked, because each loa has his or her on particular drum rythms and songs. They are thus invited to participate in the dance.The Haitian form oh spirit possessionb is clearly derived from similar, somehat more highly formalized fhenomena in elements of voodoo are derived.A Vodun ritual contains a number of elements taken over from catholicism as the Hail Mary, the Lords Prayer, the Littany of Saints, the sign of cross, baptism, the use of bells, candles, crosses and pictures of saints.There are more similar points of similarity beteen Roman Catholicism and Vodun both believe in a supreme being, the Loa resemble Christian Saints, in that they ere once people ho led exceptional lives, and are usually given a simple responsibility or special attributes, both believe in an after life, folloers of vodun believe in each persona has a met tet master of the head hich corresponds to a Christians patron saint.Sticking pins in voodoo dools as once used as a method of curing an individual by some folloers of Vodun in Ne Orleans this practice continues occasionaly in South America. The practice became associated ith Voodoo in the public mind through the vehicule of horror movies.Vodun is not hat e all thought about it, but a religion like others and the hot details about, ere just inventions e see all the time at TV and e take for granted. PAGE PAGE 4 ii0JmHnHu0Jaj0JU6CJ smHsHCJ HmHsHCJ mHsHCJ !pz.ffB ààhshaaaaaaaaa I iaaahsh1h à!nn77ia8i8NormalCJsHaJmHsHtHAiDefault Paragraph Font6i6Titleaa5CJ tmHsH...
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