The extraordinary Voodoo Festival which takes place in Ouidah, Benin every year on 10 January is a once seen, never forgotten experience. It’s the must attend event in the Voodoo calendar – a celebration of the voodoo religion and the cults associated with it – and draws fetish priests, adepts, traditional chiefs and onlookers from far and wide. There are ritual sacrifices, plus dancing, drinking and the constant pounding of drums. Devotees assume the identity of gods, dressing up and transforming into that god as they do, with the realm of the magical close at hand. The Zangbeto look like giant, walking grass skirts, while the Egungun – the most powerful – are covered entirely in colourful patchwork clothing. They emerge from the forest and process through the village, leaping towards any spectator who dares get too close. You don’t want the Egun to touch you; if he does, you can die! When they arrive in the centre of the village, they perform a kind of dance designed to scare the crowd, which is usually greeted with roars and laughter.
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