For many in the West, Voodoo invokes images of animal sacrifices, magical dolls and chanted spells.
But Voodoo – as practiced in Haiti and by the black diaspora in the United States, South America and Africa – is a religion based on ancestral spirits and patron saints
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Worshippers are dressed in white as they sacrifice goats and cows and smear themselves with the blood. Then, they dance in a sacred pool in an effort to bring forth loa – spirits that help to run the universe and can grant blessings.
It is said that the Loa sometimes communicate prophecies, advice, or warnings while the believer is possessed. Other messages are sent through the priest or priestess, or sometimes come later in dreams.
Every summer, those who believe in voodoo take a pilgrimage to holy waterfalls for a ritual for the goddess of love. The event concludes with naked bathing in the waterfalls and, for the truly devout, s*x in the mud and blood of sacrificed animals.
Followers of voodoo, the unofficial religion of the Caribbean island nation, gather in the holy city of Souvenance to take part in one of its largest annual celebrations.
Most voodoo festivals coincide with Christian celebrations because former slaves were banned from practicing the religion; holding their celebrations on the same day as their Catholic masters was a good way of disguising what they were doing.
While Roman Catholicism is still the official religion of Haiti, the vast majority of Haitians are also thought to practice some form of voodoo.
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