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Each spring, during the six weeks before Easter, ounfos (Vodou temples) throughout Haiti dispatch bands of servitors to rove the city streets and rural roads in a ritual called Rara. At first these excursions may take place only on the weekends, but as Easter approaches, they become more frequent and exhausting, with Rara groups often coming out daily and nightly to perform their music. On Good Friday, they sortie for the last time, dressed in highly embellished costumes that reflect the religious and cultural heritages that have influenced Haitian Vodou. On this day, symbols of the Yoruba and Kongo religions, Freemasonry, Catholicism, and the French aristocracy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries all appear in brilliant motion on the roads of Haiti.
My introduction to Rara came on Good Friday, 1987, as I stood in the scorching sun at a dusty, crowded intersection in Carrefour du Fort, about 95 kilometers south of Port-au-Prince. I was there on the advice of my Haitian research assistant, Georges Rene, who had assured me that this was where all the bands from the surrounding rural areas would converge into a long procession into the town square in Leogane farther up the road. There, each band would perform, each trying to outdo the other. At Carrefour du Fort, enterprising marchands had set up large baskets loaded with cookies and candy to sell to the waiting crowd. I passed the long hours sipping a bottle of soda, eager to see the people whose music had reverberated through the streets the previous night, keeping me awake. Finally those same haunting, hocketing sounds began to be heard from far down the road. The crowd around me surged forward, their excitement palpable.
The music grew louder as huge numbers of people-bands and followersadvanced toward us. Banners announcing the name of the first group to arrive were received with whistles and shouts of approval. Onlookers began to merge with the bands into one noisy, undulating mass. Suddenly I was dazzled by a flashing reflection from shimmering costumes worn by several men leading the first band. As they danced down the road, they twirled batons and showed themselves off to the appreciative crowd, occasionally stopping before individuals to perform. A donation of money followed each of...