Vodou
Haitian Vodou is a syncretic religion that developed among enslaved West and Central Africans in colonial Saint-Domingue, where Dahomean, Kongo, and Yoruba spiritual traditions fused with elements of Roman Catholicism. Central to the faith is a supreme distant creator called Bondye and a vast pantheon of intermediary spirits known as lwa, who fall into several "nations" — including the cool, water-associated Rada lwa and the hotter, fiercer Petwo lwa. Practitioners honor the lwa through drumming, song, and dance in ceremonies where the spirits are invited to "mount" initiates and speak through them. Priests (houngans) and priestesses (mambos) lead rituals, while the peristil (temple yard) and poto mitan (central pillar) serve as sacred space. The tradition has been continually caricatured since the Haitian Revolution of 1791, which it helped inspire. Today Vodou is practiced by the majority of Haitians alongside Catholicism, and by significant diaspora communities in the Dominican Republic, the United States, and Canada.