Throughout
history and even today, voodoo is thought of as something evil and
wicked. it is viewed as a rank of superstition and as devil
worshipping. in actuality, voodoo is a religion. it is
practiced chiefly in the Caribbean, especially in Haiti. The
religion is like that of any western religion or Christianity. There
is only one god (Bondye) in voodoo.
Just
like other Christian religion, there is a "trinity" in voodoo:
the Lao, the twins and the dead. Each of them have a particular
function during religious ceremony. The Lao is the various
spirits of family members; the spirits of the major forces of the
universe-good, evil, reproduction, health, all aspect of daily life.
The main function of the Lao is to interact with the people of the earth.
During religious ceremonies they give message, and even cause various good
and bad things to happen to people. The Twins is a mysterious set of
forces that contradicts: good and evil, happy and sad.... The dead
is mainly the souls of one's own family member who have died but have not
yet been "reclaimed by the family. The dead who have been
reclaimed are helpful, but those who are ignored are dangerous.
Voodoo
like other religion have service, a place were members can gather together
just like a church. The service is usually held outside, and drums
are used extensively to provide music and dancing. Every service has
animal sacrifices. it is during the services/ ceremonies the
Lao takes over a person's body.
Interviewees Information:
gender: 2 males, 3 female
age: 24-56
occupation: 2 students, 1security guard, 1 mother (unemployed), and 1 mover
level of Educ: 1 college, 1 graduate school, 3 high school
Ethnic background: Haitians and Haitaian-american
The
five people I interviewed are all Christian except for one, who is a
Catholic. Those who are of a Christian religion tended to have a
negative view of voodoo. for instance when asked of their feelings
about voodoo, they tend to use words such as "evil" and
"wicked". They thought it was a satanic practice. in the
other hand, the person who was a catholic viewed voodoo as a
religion. she said "it is not an evil thing, people may
sometime use it to do evil things, but I see it as a good thing." I
asked her why she though it was "good thing" she said
"because my parents use it to find out who her enemies are so that
way she can watch her back."
in all, the people interviewed had a mixed emotion about voodoo: three out of five viewed it as evil, one out of five viewed it as helpful and the graduate student said it was a religion, but she personally thought it was the "devil's religion."