On our first night in Jacmel, we were invited to a voodoo ceremony in a near by village. The Haitians are almost all Christians, but almost everyone believes in voodoo at some level and there is a large precentage of people that practice it regularly and a lot of people will go to consult the voodoo priest on health and other issues. There are people that practice ‘good’ voodoo that can help cure illness and stuff, and people that practice ‘bad’ voodoo in which curses are put on people making them ill, dead or zombie. A lot of people that become ill believe that it’s a curse that somebody put on them. Almost everybody we talked to about the subject (university students, business men, etc) has a story in which they saw a voodoo curse in action.
The way to the ceremony increased the effect of it. It was located in a village, and after crossing a river (needless to say – without a bridge), a motorcycle waited to take us to the venue of the ceremony.
There was a lot of dancing and a priest that encouraged people to continue.
The ‘church’ had some strange symbols.
The highlight of the ceremony was a painting made with sand on the floor (while everyone dancing in the background), that was then totally erased by a group of dancers that danced on it.
Many of the pictures are fuzzy. Probably a curse.
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