For the Haiti Challenge, the Architecture for Humanity team provided on-the-ground reports from Haiti.
November 1st and 2nd are for many practicing Catholics recognized as All Saints and All Souls day. In Haiti, where the Christian holidays are celebrated, these days also correspond with Fet Gede–Haiti’s Festival of Ancestors.
Fet Gede is a Vodun festival that, like many holidays around this time of year, is associated with a sense of proximity to the dead, and specifically to one’s ancestors. In Haiti, the week of Fet Gede is marked by pilgrimages to cemeteries, and singing, dancing, and celebration loud enough to invite the ancestors along!
How did this festival happen to fall on the observed Catholic holidays? Vodou and Catholicism are very closely linked, and it’s possible (perhaps it’s verified–I need to read more about it) that Fet Gede was moved from a different time of year in its West African origins to coincide with the heavy presence of the French colonial plantation owners.
Syncretism describes this religious merging and it certainly helped the slaves’ religious roots be accepted among the slave owners. Also due to this meshing, Haitian Vodou absorbed Catholic saints into its pantheon. There was never an absolute authority on African Vodou–it arrived piecemeal across the Atlantic and was assembled by groups of slaves from disparate tribes, and Catholic figures and prayers filled in blanks to satisfy religious needs of these newly-assembled and oppressed communities.
Vodou played a large role in Haiti’s revolution and was allowed to thrive following the nation’s independence due to its newly-found cultural isolation. The United States and Europe boycotted trade with Haiti and France pulled the presence of its Catholic missionaries.
Throughout the 19th Century, Vodou would mature from its West African and Christian roots as Haiti’s prominent and uncontested religion and further evidence a unique, young and through-and-through Creole culture.
