Voodoo Festival | Benin { 50 images } Created 20 Dec 2018
The Vodun Festival is very vibrant and filled with many activities.
The Festival starts with the slaughter of a goat in honor of the spirits and is followed by lots of chanting, dancing, invocation of the spirits, initiations rites and various spectacles.
Other sacrifices are made to be in favor of the spirits and receive more blessings. The spectacles are amazing and very entertaining.
It is known that during some of the spectacles that Vodun followers might enter a state of trance and perform unexplainable acts such as cutting themselves or talking to deceased descendants.
The word Vodun, also spelled as Vaudou, Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou, Voodoo, comes from the Fon and Ewe Languages and it means “Spirit”. Although the birthplace is in Benin, it is African traditional religion practiced in coastal West Africa from Ghana to Nigeria. Vodun uses spirits and other organic elements (animals, sea and earth) during invocation rites. The world of the living and the dead are intertwined. In the religion, there is one God, Mawu, that has many helpers that are called the Orishas. There are 7 Orishas or 7 children of Mawu (God). The Orishas are much like the Sanskrit chakra system. Each one of them are part of our human body and vibrates different energies while working in continuum with the others. You called or put focus on specific Orishas based on the challenges you face.
Ouida, Benin 2014.
©Ingetje Tadros
The Festival starts with the slaughter of a goat in honor of the spirits and is followed by lots of chanting, dancing, invocation of the spirits, initiations rites and various spectacles.
Other sacrifices are made to be in favor of the spirits and receive more blessings. The spectacles are amazing and very entertaining.
It is known that during some of the spectacles that Vodun followers might enter a state of trance and perform unexplainable acts such as cutting themselves or talking to deceased descendants.
The word Vodun, also spelled as Vaudou, Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou, Voodoo, comes from the Fon and Ewe Languages and it means “Spirit”. Although the birthplace is in Benin, it is African traditional religion practiced in coastal West Africa from Ghana to Nigeria. Vodun uses spirits and other organic elements (animals, sea and earth) during invocation rites. The world of the living and the dead are intertwined. In the religion, there is one God, Mawu, that has many helpers that are called the Orishas. There are 7 Orishas or 7 children of Mawu (God). The Orishas are much like the Sanskrit chakra system. Each one of them are part of our human body and vibrates different energies while working in continuum with the others. You called or put focus on specific Orishas based on the challenges you face.
Ouida, Benin 2014.
©Ingetje Tadros
