PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Dressed in white, shaking decorated gourd rattles and singing praises to “Olorum Papa” (God the Father), several hundred practitioners of Haiti’s voodoo religion held a public ceremony yesterday to honour those killed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.
While several Christian ceremonies have been held to mourn the hundreds of thousands of quake dead, this was the first national commemoration by Haiti’s voodoo religion, which has had to defend itself against accusations by some Evangelical preachers that it somehow caused the deadly natural disaster.
The supreme head of Haiti’s voodoo religion, Max Beauvoir — an elderly, bespectacled man dressed in an embroidered white robe and bonnet — presided over the ceremony in a central Port-au-Prince square. It coincided with the Catholic feast day of Palm Sunday, the start of Easter Holy Week.
More than half of Haiti’s nearly 10 million people are believed to practice voodoo, a religion brought from West Africa several centuries ago by slaves forced to work on the plantations of their white masters in what was then the rich French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue. The religion is recognized by Haiti’s state and protected by the constitution.
“Olorum Papa, hear our cry to you,” chanted the worshipers. The women wore white robes, some trimmed with lace and embroidery, and black headscarves; the men white shirts and trousers, some with black hats.
To the sound of rattles and drums, the celebrants held a Booroum, a voodoo ritual which they believe sends the souls of the dead “under water” so they can be cleansed and return to life as better beings.
“Hounkou Bolokou Djavohoun Bohoun”, chorused the worshipers, repeating an ancient voodoo incantation intended to encourage the souls of the dead.
“The people who died did not die, they went to another world, to live, under water,” Beauvoir, who was educated at City College of New York and the Sorbonne in Paris, told the crowd from a stage, surrounded by other “houngan” or voodoo priests.
