Haitian Voodoo Research Papers

The word voodoo has such a stigma around, this is due to the fact that people are mainly informed of the “tourist” appeal of voodoo. People and when I say people, me included before this, thought it was about witches, magic, and dolls. I believed it was about dark magic and the practice of it, not even knowing it was a followed religion or even a way of life. To understand this somewhat mysterious and “taboo” subject we wanted to first understand specifically how does a person who follows voodoo participate in their faith; and secondly how does voodooism address health/ sickness and curing? We wanted to find out what was below the surface of the word Voodoo. What are the ways of their faith? How similar is it to other religions, and where is its history? The biggest thing regarding Voodooism is that it is a religion. In fact it is the main religion of Haiti which is where we get haitian voodoo from. In the religion of Voodoo they believe in one god, Bondye but they also worship or praise other deities. These consist of spirits that help or hurt them in life. These other spirits interact with all forces of their life, family, earth, good,

Healing the sick from illnesses and evil. The priesthood of healers can be both men and women. They use techniques such as chants and rituals but healing can also be done with herbs, oils, and casting spells (mainly protection spells). The main difference between voodoo and western healing is that we (westerners) do not partake in chants or rituals or spells to heal our sick. We do use medicine which can consist of herbs and oils. We also have designated professionals who heal the sick, like doctors, nurses, psychiatrists. These healing practices can make up 60% of all voodoo activity. It is a very big aspect of their life and religion. Me and my group wanted to address something important and a big aspect of the voodoo faith and this is not something we could skip