Every
year in summer thousands of pilgrims from all over Haiti make a
religious journey to the village of Ville Bonheur and the sacred Waters
of Saut d’Eau waterfall, located near Mirebalais and 60 miles north of
Port au Prince, a main pilgrimage site in Haiti since 1847.
It is believed that 150 years ago, Erzulie the goddess of love and beauty, camouflaged in the spirit of Virgin Mary of miracles has appeared on a palm tree close to the waterfall, a French priest, afraid of the superstition this would inspire, cut the tree down, but it nonetheless became an important religious destination for Haitians.
The sick and the needy let the water of the falls wash over them as they perform various rituals of Voodoo in a religious festival that lasts for three days.
Haitians wearing only underwear perform a bathing and cleaning ritual under the waterfall and Voodoo followers get possessed by the spirit of water.
Believers spend hours under the sound and the coolness of the water, praying, hugging. Many throw their old clothes to the sky, a symbol of a past they want to leave behind.
And some hougan consult the (priests) or the mambo (priestess) possessed by loas (voodoo deities).
Beneath the waterspout is impossible to hear a word, the devotees dance, make ablutions with their bottles and bowls of pumpkin and delivered to communion with saints ‘praise’.
It is believed that 150 years ago, Erzulie the goddess of love and beauty, camouflaged in the spirit of Virgin Mary of miracles has appeared on a palm tree close to the waterfall, a French priest, afraid of the superstition this would inspire, cut the tree down, but it nonetheless became an important religious destination for Haitians.
The sick and the needy let the water of the falls wash over them as they perform various rituals of Voodoo in a religious festival that lasts for three days.
Haitians wearing only underwear perform a bathing and cleaning ritual under the waterfall and Voodoo followers get possessed by the spirit of water.
Believers spend hours under the sound and the coolness of the water, praying, hugging. Many throw their old clothes to the sky, a symbol of a past they want to leave behind.
Beneath the waterspout is impossible to hear a word, the devotees dance, make ablutions with their bottles and bowls of pumpkin and delivered to communion with saints ‘praise’.
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