Voodoo Practice Legalized in Haiti

This oft-misunderstood and ridiculed religion has recently gained some measure of official respectability.

Voodoo or an offshoot of voodoo is, ironically, perhaps the oldest religion in the world, and yet the government of Haiti only got round to officially sanctioning this religion three years ago. Practitioners of voodoo now have the legal authority to perform baptisms and marriages, for example.

Voodoo has for centuries suffered from a bad reputation and has been ridiculed as barbaric and absurd.

The voodoo religion originated in west Africa and further evolved among Caribbean slaves who brought the religion with them from Africa. There has always been a concerted effort by European slavers as well as the Catholic church to stamp out voodoo. Despite these efforts the religion, now with elements of Catholicism, thrives today in Haiti and in many parts of Latin America.

Until the 1940´s the Catholic church fought against the voodoo religion, persecuting and even hanging its followers while also destroying sacred voodoo objects and temples.

Today voodoo is practiced by about 80% of Haiti´s population of 8.3 million people.