translated from Spanish: With this strange Voodoo celebration celebrate the dead in Haiti

port Prince (AP) — black, white and purple dresses, believers in Voodoo’s Haiti visit cemeteries during the annual Fete Gedé, the Festival of the Muertos.La celebration of the espirit us, which often takes place during the first two days of November, coincides with the Catholic festivities of the day of all the Santos.Es an intricate issue. During the festival, believers dress as spirits Gede known as “You indicated”, and they say that they are owned by those who heard his prayers and provide favors to members of his congregation.

“The Gede spirit has been manifested in my head for 30 years”, says Ateis Auguste, who sells food fried in the streets of Cite Soleil, one of the neighborhoods most poor, violent and overcrowded on the outskirts of the capital.

Each year, during the celebration they painted his face with white powder, dress clothes “loas”, run through the narrow alleys of the neighborhood and go to cemeteries to offer honors the spirits and be possessed by them. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Auguste and his spouse, Raynold Alexandre, are well-known in that neighborhood Voodoo priests, and three of his six children are also priests. Each year during the painted his face with white powder, carry special clothing and walking through the narrow streets of the neighborhood to pay honors to the spirits.

The most respected in the Fête Gedé is Baron Samedi, a lewd depiction of life and death, which is in charge of the door of Guiné (a kind of heaven) wearing a black suit and a top hat, at the time drinking alcohol you smoke tobacco and follows the young ladies in a provocative way. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

They also drink and washing the face, eyes and even the genitals with a mixture of rum and spicy chilies, and offer coffee, food, rum, music and dances to dead friends and relatives, as well as Baron Samedi, the ruler of the cemetery. Among all the eulogies, Baron Samedi is one of the most respected, and is said to be the protector of children and the last hope of the sick. Frequently shown drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco, following young women in provocatively. Mimose Bernard, a believer in 44 years, performed ritual Voodoo for other residents of the slum since the beginning of October until 2 November. He says that Baron Samedi is a good spirit that helped protect it with good health and good luck.

During the celebration, which begins in October and reaches its climax the 1 and 2 November, believers carry the distinctive clothing of their Loas or Gedes, the generic name in creole to the spirits. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

“I remember that you had 10 years old when I called the Gede spirit for the first time”, said Bernard, who lives with his son in a small house built with old sheets of metal.

Haitian Voodoo specialists also consider Baron Samedi as Advisor wise, protector of children and the last hope for the dead. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
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Original source in Spanish