Does anyone here have first hand knowledge of the Vodou religion. Real question:

I would like to know if animal sacrifice is a confirmed part of the religion.

Edit: meant (Voodoo) in title.

Wikipedia says it is.

EDIT: The Haitian people I've met here in Florida are Catholic.

Yeah. I found it interesting that there seems to be some Catholic roots to the Vodou religion (not sure how) according to Wiki.

I hoped but also mounted there'd be many TA R&P lurkers who practice Vodou.

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I would like to know if animal sacrifice is a confirmed part of the religion.

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From what I have read . . . .

Basically the "Animal Sacrifice" is actually the preparation of food for communal meals, some of which is offered up to the Lwas, of Voodoo spirits.

Poorer communities in the third world still kill animals for their meals. Modern Voodoo communities in places like the Big Easy use store bought food.

The average Deer Hunter here in the United States is equally as guilt of Animal Sacrifice if he is out bagging wild game and then eating some of it as part of a Sunday meal.

Small clip from a very long podcast. This is a priest on the ground in Haiti. Seems like most people are good and don't take the practice seriously but some do.

What is so confusing. Both Christianity and Judaism have history of making food offerings to God.

Leviticus 23:36

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The Festival of Tabernacles

33 The Lord said to Moses, 34 "Say to the Israelites: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord's Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. 35 The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. 36 For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.

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The Torah has very detailed specs on different types of food offerings. That has morphed over the years to us blessing the food for the nourishment of our bodies. If you kill an animal for food consumption that is not a sin or amoral. If you use that food in some sort of religiously themed meal, still not a a sin or amoral.

But I think the real point is that Voodoo practitioners are not out stealing Tabby and Spot from backyards, gutting them, dancing in their blood while chanting creepily like we see in Steven Seagal movies or in Pat Robertson fever dreams. There are centuries of lore that have crept up regarding voodoo that have more to do with being uneasy with African or Caribbean immigrants than it does with an actual understanding of that religion.

I think a much-needed distinction between what is happening in voodoo and Christianity in terms of animal sacrifices to God, is the fact that in the times of Abraham and beyond, the animal comes from one's own bounty. In other words, it's much like offering a tithe today comes from your own wealth. That is part why it is a sacrifice for the believer. This is different from capturing the neighbors pet!

Martin Q. Blank said:

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What is so confusing.

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That you equate hunting to animal sacrifice. The only commonality between the two is that animal dies.

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I agree here. I just came back from a caribou hint in which I was successful. I have thanks to our creator and almighty God for the gift of success, but in no way did I offer it as an animal sacrifice to God.

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I think a much-needed distinction between what is happening in voodoo and Christianity in terms of animal sacrifices to God, is the fact that in the times of Abraham and beyond, the animal comes from one's own bounty. In other words, it's much like offering a tithe today comes from your own wealth. That is part why it is a sacrifice for the believer. This is different from capturing the neighbors pet!

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Maybe . . . .most of what I read involved sacrifice for the atonement of sin, not thanking the Lord for his bounty.

https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-sacrifice-of-praise-and-animal-sacrifice/

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When Christians come across New Testament exhortations to offer a "sacrifice of praise" (Heb 13:15), we may instinctively assume "sacrifice" is a metaphor. Levitical sacrifice is the paradigm of literal sacrifice. Ancient Israelites slaughtered and dismembered animals, and priests spread blood on the altar and put animal parts on the wood of the fire on the altar, turning them to smoke so they could rise to Yahweh. Sacrifice involves killing an animal and shedding blood as atonement for sin.

We do not do any of that anymore, not in worship. We do not enter the sanctuary with a calf or lamb in tow. No butchering happens in the narthex. Candles burn on the altar, but the altar itself does not burn. We eat the flesh and drink the blood of a sacrificial victim, but we receive the flesh and blood through bread and wine.

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https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/ritual-sacrifice-in-ancient-israel/

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While ritual sacrifice is now discouraged in many modern religionswith the ritual sacrifice now often represented by symbolic acts and gesturesancient sacrifice in Israel and many other ancient cultures was a common part of religious worship.

Ancient sacrifice in Israel was also a means of sanctifying meat consumption, but Hallo argues that it also took on several additional layers of meaning and significance. Ancient sacrifice in Israel was seen as a method for sanctifying certain human activities and as a way of imparting greater significance to certain rituals. Animal sacrifice was also a means of redress and was seen as a way of atoning for human transgressions.

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And for those anthropological folks that have actually dug deep in to Voodoo practices, they found similarities. Practicioners were killing their own pigs and the chickens and offering some to their Lwas and using the rest for communal meals.

They do so for different motivations, however.

Take a trip to New Orleans you will learn about Voodoo, then you get an exorcism.

The question should be limited to the religion of VooDoo not the geography.

Ask a missionary who has served in Haiti if you want to learn about the Haitians, they are not liked in the Caribbean. Haiti is poor filled with the occult and the DR is totally different.

We have cults in the USA that sacrifice cats it is rare but it happens.

Paul

747Ag said:

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Wikipedia says it is.

EDIT: The Haitian people I've met here in Florida are Catholic.

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And in Springfield Ohio....If you believe the idiots.

It very much is. It's bith for the summoning of the Lwa and consumed. Different sects have different views on pain. Most voodoon consider themselves catholic btw... is what it is.

I knew the local Manbo hear during harvey. She called me pissed thinking someone had managed to prank her, about 8 poor bedraggled chickens floated up on her porch, and she let them in. I laughed for the first time in the days since my mother and grandmother where rescued that they chose the voodoo lady... incidentally, those chickens where taken as a sign of great luck and fortune, and never sacrificed

I believe that people can be both Catholic and Voodoo believers AT THE SAME TIME and this may be common in Haiti, but how common is a mystery to me.

Rongagin71 said:

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I believe that people can be both Catholic and Voodoo believers AT THE SAME TIME and this may be common in Haiti, but how common is a mystery to me.

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They might claim to be a member of the Church but they cannot be in communion with the Church if they practice voodoo. So in reality, no, they cannot be a practicing Catholic in God's grace and practicing witch doctory.

There are lots of people who don't practice Christianity, Islam, Mithraism, etc. up to the standards expected by the "more faithful" BUT they still get to fill out government forms with whatever they identify as.

Rongagin71 said:

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I believe that people can be both Catholic and Voodoo believers AT THE SAME TIME and this may be common in Haiti, but how common is a mystery to me.

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There is a limit to this practice it would seem. Pope Benedict cautioned against syncretism or the merging of religious practices. While there may be some "ray of truth" -the right path is to see everything in the light of the gospel.

Most identify themselves as catholic anyway. It's extremely common, the lwa are viewed as similar to saints.

There are different types of voodoo. Caribbean voodo is a much darker practice, what's practice in Louisiana is generally less rough