The New York Times recently ran an interesting piece on a Fet Gede held in Brooklyn, that discussed Voodoo as a religion per se and the various attitudes of local Haitian immigrants to it. The article begins:
“In a dark club in Downtown Brooklyn, surrounded by more than 100 people, Agathina Ginoue Nozy took a sip of Haitian rum. She stood near an altar stacked with skulls, lit candles, cigars, rum, coffee and bowls filled with charred salt fish, boiled plantains, cassava and piman (spicy peppers).
“’You typically drink white liquor during Fet Gede, but if there is none you drink rum with no ice to feel the heat,’ Ms. Nozy said. ‘Gede is a hot thing.’
“Her face was painted to look hollow, like a skull, and she wore a dark skeleton bodysuit and a black veil. With her fingers wrapped around a smoking pipe and an austere look on her face, Ms. Nozy had become the embodiment of Maman Brigitte, a Haitian lwa (or goddess) of death.”
Read the entire article
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/nyregion/fetgede-voodoo-haiti.html.
