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Populär Culture Review
and its developing ties to and incorporation o f hoodoo, “a form o f
African American folk magic that operates independent o f the gods”
(Anderson, Hoodoo 42). According to New Orleans’ folklore, this
biending o f Voodoo and hoodoo saw its heyday during the reign o f New
O rleans’ most famous Voodoo queen Marie Laveau (1801-1881) and
lead to the term “New Orleans Voodoo Hoodoo.”
Despite the whites’ disapproval and skepticism, in 1817, the
New Orleans Municipal Council passed a law that allowed slaves to
gather on Sundays at Congo Square, the present Louis Armstrong Park.
This given freedom for the slaves encouraged and attracted more and
more white onlookers. According to Voodoo priestess Ava Kay Jones,
the white scrutiny, however, soon tum ed into performance pieces,
emphasizing drumming and music rather than the presentation o f
religious rituals (see Jones, Voodoo online). In this respect it is surprising
to find out that in 1820, the local newspaper, the Louisiana Gazette,
reports o f several arrests o f black (and later white) people for holding
occult practices and the idolatrous worship o f an African deity called
Vaudoo (see Louisiana Gazette). In his book New Orleans As It Was
(1895), Henry Castellanos, one o f the city’s most prominent citizens in
the late nineteenth Century, relates similar scenarios o f arrests especially
in the 1860s, a time when more and more white people “were identified
as attending a Voodoo ceremony” and seeking help from Marie Laveau
(Castellanos 14). The eventual inhibition o f these assemblies in public
spaces led to nightly gatherings in remote locations as for example at the
St. John Bayou. As a result, folkloric accounts “o f Voodoo orgies and o f
whites being possessed by spirits” developed (Jones, Voodoo online).
This fictionalized almost gothic-like setting trenched in secrecy and
looming danger has fueled the imagination o f Hollywood’s moviemakers
ever since, and is apparent in Alan Parker’s visualization o f the midnight Voodoo ceremony in the heart o f the swamps.
Ancestor Worship
In addition to the worship o f the ancestral and spiritual world
during Voodoo ceremonies, Voodoo followers also build ancestor altars
either at their temples or homes (see Picture 1).