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Vodou  Actions
Haitian religion
Also known as: Vaudou, Vodun, Voodoo, Voudou, vodon
Written by Elizabeth A. McAlister
Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Nov 7, 2023 • Article History

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Vodou, a traditional Afro-Haitian religion. Vodou represents a syncretism of

the West African Vodun religion and Roman Catholicism by the descendants
of the Dahomean, Kongo, Yoruba, and other ethnic groups who had been
enslaved and transported to colonial Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was known
then) and partly Christianized by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th
and 17th centuries. The word Vodou means “spirit” or “deity” in the Fon
language of the African kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin).
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Vodou

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Category: History & Society

Also spelled: Voodoo, Voudou, Vodun, or French: Vaudou ...(Show more)

Key People: Marie Laveau • Alfred Métraux

Related Topics: lwa • vèvè • gwobonanj • govi • zombi

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Vodou is a worldview encompassing philosophy, medicine, justice, and

religion. Its fundamental principle is that everything is spirit. Humans are
spirits who inhabit the visible world. The unseen world is populated by lwa
(spirits), mystè (mysteries), anvizib (the invisibles), zanj (angels), and the
spirits of ancestors and the recently deceased. All these spirits are believed to

live in a mythic land called Ginen, a cosmic “Africa.” The God of the Christian
Bible is understood to be the creator of both the universe and the spirits; the
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 spirits were made by God to help him govern humanity and the natural
world.

The primary goal and activity of Vodou is to sevi lwa (“serve the spirits”)—to
offer prayers and perform various devotional rites directed at God and
particular spirits in return for health, protection, and favour. Spirit
possession plays an important role in Afro-Haitian religion, as it does in
many other world religions. During religious rites, believers sometimes enter
a trancelike state in which the devotee may eat and drink, perform stylized
dances, give supernaturally inspired advice to people, or perform medical
cures or special physical feats; these acts exhibit the incarnate presence of
the lwa within the entranced devotee. Vodou ritual activity (e.g., prayer,
song, dance, and gesture) is aimed at refining and restoring balance and
energy in relationships between people and between people and the spirits of
the unseen world.

Vodou is an oral tradition practiced by extended families that inherit familial

spirits, along with the necessary devotional practices, from their elders. In
the cities, local hierarchies of priestesses or priests (manbo and oungan),
“children of the spirits” (ounsi), and ritual drummers (ountògi) comprise
more formal “societies” or “congregations” (sosyete). In these congregations,
knowledge is passed on through a ritual of initiation (kanzo) in which the
body becomes the site of spiritual transformation. There is some regional
difference in ritual practice across Haiti, and branches of the religion include
Rada, Daome, Ibo, Nago, Dereal, Manding, Petwo, and Kongo. There is no
centralized hierarchy, no single leader, and no official spokesperson, but
various groups sometimes attempt to create such official structures. There
are also secret societies, called Bizango or Sanpwèl, that perform a religio-
juridical function.

A calendar of ritual feasts, syncretized with the Roman Catholic calendar,

provides the yearly rhythm of religious practice. Important lwa are

celebrated on saints’ days (for example: Ogou on St. James’s Day, July 25;
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 Ezili Danto on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16; Danbala on
St. Patrick’s Day, March 17; and the spirits of the ancestors on All Saints’ Day
and All Souls’ Day, November 1 and November 2). Many other familial feasts
(for the sacred children, for the poor, for particular ancestors) as well as
initiations and funerary rituals occur throughout the year.

Elizabeth A. McAlister

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Hito-no-michi  Actions
Japanese religion
Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Article History

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Hito-no-michi, (Japanese: “Way of Man”), Japanese religious sect founded

by Miki Tokuharu (1871–1938); it was revived in a modified form after World
War II as PL Kyōdan (q.v.; from the English words “perfect liberty” and a
Japanese term for “church”). Hito-no-michi was a development of an earlier
religious movement, Tokumitsu-kyō, named after its founder, Kanada
Tokumitsu (1863–1919), who taught that the sufferings of his followers could
be transferred to him by divine mediation and that he would vicariously
endure their troubles. Hito-no-michi was compelled by the government to
affiliate itself with one of the Sect Shintō denominations, Fusō-kyō; but its
unorthodox teachings and growing strength (in 1934 it claimed a
membership of 600,000) aroused the disfavour of the government. In 1937
the sect was ordered disbanded, and Miki Tokuharu and his son Miki
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 Tokuchika were jailed. Tokuchika was released from prison in 1945 and
shortly afterward established PL Kyōdan.

Category: History & Society

Related Topics: PL Kyōdan • Tokumitsu-kyō • religious movement

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