Praising His Name In The Dance by Kenneth Anthony Lum

Author:Kenneth Anthony Lum [Lum, Kenneth Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Ethnic & Tribal, Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781136766305
Google: AgwUd7bEcmMC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2000-01-18T03:37:59+00:00

The Return

This ceremony was performed to call all of the orishas to say good-bye to them until the following year. As with most aspects of Orisha Work, there were two main variations. In the north, the return was held forty days after the first part of the feast was completed and it lasted for one night. At Leader A.’s return, a thanksgiving was also held in the palais for St. Francis in the afternoon. Those who took part were fed and given food as gifts. There was a break before the African side was started. The format of Leader A.’s return was essentially the same as the procedure of the first part of his feast, except that there were no sacrifices. At this time, a number of manifestations were supposed to occur. In the south, the return lasted for three nights, and it began on the second Wednesday after the completion of the first part of the feast. Its format was again the same as at a feast, including the sacrifice of animals on the first two nights. There were also numerous manifestations.

At Leader Lindsay’s return, on the second night, there was an additional ceremony for Oshun prior to the usual procedure. Here, a small wooden boat was “sailed” at a beach service, similar to a sailing of a tray. Candles, food, and money were placed in the boat, to the accompaniment of Christian prayers and hymns. There followed drumming and singing for Oshun. The boat was then sent out to sea. This was done “to connect with the Baptists in Nigeria,” whom Mother Queen had seen performing the same ceremony. She urged the unification of the Spiritual Baptist Faith and Orisha Work, saying that both came from Egypt. She said, “All is one; we are midnight people, and our colour is yellow – like the sun.” After this service was completed, everybody returned to the compound where the return was resumed.

At Archbishop Mejias’s return, which lasted one night, a kabalistic spirit was invoked (see Chapter 9 below). When it manifested, it performed a healing ceremony in which a goat was sacrificed and it also presided over the ceremony itself, even though there was an amambwa present. The ceremony was essentially the same as described above; however, the kabalistic spirit participated in the service, including making obeisances before all of the stools in the compound. No orishas manifested that night.

This concludes my description of the rituals of Orisha Work. Even though variations occurred between individual ceremonies, the one aspect of worship in which the relations between the orishas and people was given tangible form was when the orishas manifested themselves, thereby demonstrably participating in, and accepting, the ceremony and the offerings. I will describe this aspect in the next chapter.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.