Vodou mystic baths in fire

Xavier_Onassis said:

This may be a powerful ritual, but it lacks style to the post of just looking very silly.

Vodou in really bad horror movies, in my opinion, always looks far more serious than santeria and vodou that I have seen in person.

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Xavier_Onassis said:

I have heard scholars of Vodun and Santer?a alike discuss how serious and legitimate these religions are, but their discussions resemble in no way what I have seen. Here in Miami, I have attended several santer?a rituals, and they tended to be more like a Monty Python skit than anything you could call a religion. One arrives, bows to several images, distinguished by their colors and surrounded by bunches of fruit and food and children's toys and dolls. Here one makes a contribution of $10 or $20). Later, drummers arrive and pound on bongos and other drums and people dance. Usually some woman goes into a jerky fit. A priestess walks through the crowd, puffing on a cigar and wearing ritual robes, followed by a younger girl, a priestess in training, carrying a dish of some liquid. The priestess sprays rum in four corners of the room, followed by blowing smoke from a cigar in the same way. More bongos and dancing, nearly everyone eats a lot of pork and rice and beans and sometimes chicken, rice and beans, everyone drinks a lot of beer, Heineken, Corona and President being the favorites, then the kids swing at a pi?ata. All the kids go home with cheap Chinese toys. The whole thing is more a party than a religious ceremony. Perhaps it was not a typical santer?a ritual.

I am less familiar with Haitian voudun. On several occasions, I attended early Saturday morning classes at Barry University and noticed vinyl basins filled with dead chickens and herbs at the entrance of the parking lot during final exam week.

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