What are some Santeria rituals?

Santeria rituals allow human beings to stay in contact with the Orishas – these rituals include dancing, drumming, speaking and eating with the spirits. Santeria has few buildings devoted to the faith.

What is similar between Santeria and Candomblé?

Santería and Candomblé are neo-African religions practiced in Cuba and Brazil, respectively. Both are basically New World versions of the religious beliefs of the Yoruba people of West Africa, with admixtures of other African influences.

What are Orixas in Candomblé?

Orixas are ancestors who have been deified. These orixas can be from recent history, perhaps only one hundred years old, or they may be over a thousand years old. Orixas are a link between the spiritual world and the world of humans.

What is Candomblé dance?

Candomblé, meaning “dance in honor of the gods” in Portuguese, is an Afro-Brazilian religion developed during the earliest days of slave trade by Africans forced into slavery in Brazil.

What does it mean to be crowned in Santería?

On February 2nd, I went through a ceremony called ocha/regla de ocha/kariocha/crowning. Here’s what it means: Ocha (Kariocha, making Santo): The initiation of a new priest or priestess where his/her tutelary Orisha is put on his/her head (crown) during a seven-day ceremony.

What are orixás in Candomblé?

(Candomblé and Umbanda developed when the Portuguese forcibly converted the slaves to Catholicism. In a successful attempt to preserve their own religious traditions, the slaves related the Catholic saints them to their own African spirits, called orixá.

What happens during Santería initiation?

The annual celebration of one’s initiation into the religion is known as the cumpleaños de santo (“birthday in the saint”). As an initiate becomes more deeply involved in the religion, they learn about each of the different deities and make offerings to each of them in exchange for spiritual blessings and aché.

What are the origins of Candomblé?

Candomblé is an African-Brazilian religion. It was born of a people who were taken from their homes in Africa and transplanted to Brazil during the slave trade.

What is Santeria music?

Santería music is percussion-driven and groups are traditionally composed of three batá drummers, a chorus, and a lead singer/master of ceremonies (akpwón) all of whom sing in the Lucumí language, a Yoruba dialect with particular Cuban inflections and elements borrowed from other African slave communities.