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Nov 1,2, 2009
Following the Calendar is a way to honor the Loas and Spirits in Vodou. The upcoming Fete Ghede (or Fet Gede) is celebrated in Haiti and also in New Orleans.....here are some interesting facts about Papa Ghede and his special time of the year---
Karen McCarthy Brown describes the dynamic deity Gede in her book, __Mama Lola__:
"Papa Gede, as Alourdes [Mama Lola] calls him, is a trickster spirit. Through his randy, playful, childish, and childlike personality Gede raises life energy and redefines the most painful situation — even death itself — as one worth a good laugh. Gede is a transformation artist, and this is the reason he is also the principal
healer among the Vodou lwa.
Gede is the Vodou spirit who presides over the realms of sex, death, and humor. His possession-performances vary along a spectrum that tracks the path of a human life. He eats with his hands and sometimes throws his food like an infant. Like a two-year-old, he delights in saying naughty words. He is horny and predatory with women, like a young man with raging hormones. Like a favorite uncle, he hunkers down with the faithful and listens with genuine care to the most homely of their complains…
Gede has license to break all the social rules. … Haitians are, in general, a discreet and proper people. Lacking physical privacy, they strongly emphasize good manners. It is, for example, highly insulting to call a person malelve (badly reared); were Gede not a spirit, he would be a prime candidate for this insult. He can say all the things that are forbidden in polite company, act out the impulses others must suppress. … He alone can satirize the powerful and the privileged; only Gede could get away with making fun of Catholic priests. …
Gede takes people on a journey through their most out-of-control selves and, in so doing, prepares them to move back into the ordinary world where reserve and control must reign. Yet Gede's possession-performances should not be mistaken for mere entertainment.
Gede brings to the surface a connection between sexuality and life energy pervasive in Vodou spirituality. All Vodou rituals aim to echofe (heat things up). To raise heat, to raise luck, to raise life energy, to intensify sexuality in the broadest sense — these are all more or less the same process. The arrival of Gede at the end of a Vodou ceremony provides an extra, intense dose of the power needed to conquer life, to use it and enjoy it, rather than be conquered by it."
I am not believe in such kind of ceremony.
Cajuste
Haitian Director of People In Need Partnership
Following the Calendar is a way to honor the Loas and Spirits in Vodou. The upcoming Fete Ghede (or Fet Gede) is celebrated in Haiti and also in New Orleans.....here are some interesting facts about Papa Ghede and his special time of the year---
Karen McCarthy Brown describes the dynamic deity Gede in her book, __Mama Lola__:
"Papa Gede, as Alourdes [Mama Lola] calls him, is a trickster spirit. Through his randy, playful, childish, and childlike personality Gede raises life energy and redefines the most painful situation — even death itself — as one worth a good laugh. Gede is a transformation artist, and this is the reason he is also the principal
healer among the Vodou lwa.
Gede is the Vodou spirit who presides over the realms of sex, death, and humor. His possession-performances vary along a spectrum that tracks the path of a human life. He eats with his hands and sometimes throws his food like an infant. Like a two-year-old, he delights in saying naughty words. He is horny and predatory with women, like a young man with raging hormones. Like a favorite uncle, he hunkers down with the faithful and listens with genuine care to the most homely of their complains…
Gede has license to break all the social rules. … Haitians are, in general, a discreet and proper people. Lacking physical privacy, they strongly emphasize good manners. It is, for example, highly insulting to call a person malelve (badly reared); were Gede not a spirit, he would be a prime candidate for this insult. He can say all the things that are forbidden in polite company, act out the impulses others must suppress. … He alone can satirize the powerful and the privileged; only Gede could get away with making fun of Catholic priests. …
Gede takes people on a journey through their most out-of-control selves and, in so doing, prepares them to move back into the ordinary world where reserve and control must reign. Yet Gede's possession-performances should not be mistaken for mere entertainment.
Gede brings to the surface a connection between sexuality and life energy pervasive in Vodou spirituality. All Vodou rituals aim to echofe (heat things up). To raise heat, to raise luck, to raise life energy, to intensify sexuality in the broadest sense — these are all more or less the same process. The arrival of Gede at the end of a Vodou ceremony provides an extra, intense dose of the power needed to conquer life, to use it and enjoy it, rather than be conquered by it."
I am not believe in such kind of ceremony.
Cajuste
Haitian Director of People In Need Partnership
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