St. John's Eve Headwashing Ceremony In Honor of Marie Laveau

Manbo Sallie Ann Glassman attracts the faithful, the curious, and the obtuse in her annual celebration of the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.

Under the indigo moonlit skies of a New Orleans midsummer,

Manbo Sallie Ann Glassman leads the ceremony in honor of

Marie Laveau.

 

 





"Mother of Vodou, Queen of Conjure, Mistress of Many Names: Teach us how it is right to call upon you. Meet us in the moonlight, where the waters kiss the shore; let our drum beats be the heart beat

Of your presence that endures."

 

June 23rd, the Eve of St. John, has historically been an important day in the Vodou religion and in the beliefs of related conjure practices.  Indeed, if there is such a thing as a "holy day" in traditional voodoo, St. John's Eve is that day. 

 

Madame Marie Laveau (1794-1881) was recognized as the Mother of Vodou in New Orleans in her lifetime.  Even as a young woman she enjoyed the distinction of her reputation as a "rootworker" and "conjure woman."  Although initially that reputation was mainly among the free people of color and slave populations of New Orleans, she entered mature womanhood recognized by all as the de facto Queen of Voodoo in New Orleans - a title that has never been successfully challenged in all the years since her death. 

 

Madame Laveau's name can be found connected to any number of tales and legends that treat of the subjects of voodoo, hoodoo, and the supernatural in New Orleans; she has always been considered a mysterious historical personage.  But in fact there is plenty that is known about the life and activities of this powerful maven of the old city.  One thing is well-established, that every year on St. John's Eve (June 23rd) Madame Laveau would host a gathering of her followers on the shore of St. John's Bayou where it met Lake Pontchartrain.  These gatherings were very similar to the slave "bamboulas" held in the Congo Fields on the edge of the old French Quarter, but there was one exception: the St. John's bamboulas had Marie Laveau as a host.

 

Residents living nearby the St. John's Bayou site, and even those at some distance along the Bayou's interior, took to their homes at the first sound of the bamboula's ritual drums; superstitious about voodoo and other "heathen" practices of the slaves, good folk figured it was best to shelter inside when Madame Laveau was about "conjuring the devil."  Though there was conjuring going on at these bamboulas, it had nothing to do with the devil of Christian beliefs - and every good vodusi knew no devil would be rash enough to come up and challenge the great Marie Laveau! 

Portrait of Madame Marie Laveau

by Schneider (believed to be an accurate representation).

In age-old rituals, brought from Africa and through the islands of the Caribbean with the slave diaspora, Madame Laveau in her role as high priestess would call for the blessing of the ancestors, those familial spirits who are closest to those of us who dwell in physical reality.  Madame Laveau would then call upon Papa Legba, the guardian of the crossroads and, like the Christian St. Peter with whom he is syncretized, the keeper of the keys to the realm of the unseen.  Once obtaining the favor of Papa Legba, the remainder of the ritual could commence; this might focus on a particular Lwa (voodoo spirit) or perhaps on the initiations or petitions of the faithful assembled.  Rapturous drumbeats would call to those unseen on the other side, and throughout the night the spirits might come and go through the thin veil that separates the worlds, under the protection of Papa Legba and the constant guidance of Madame Marie Laveau.

 

Needless to say, in addition to the initiated and the faithful, Madame Laveau's rituals also frequently attracted the curious and the superstitious.  The gatherings were often written about, albeit overdramatically, and this served to increase the interest of visitors to New Orleans: indeed, curious travelers actually helped to raise local voodoo to tourist-attraction status very early on.  And even though it is at least 130 years since Madame Laveau physically participated in a St. John's Eve ritual, she regularly appears at gatherings of the faithful even in the 21st century.

 

The St. John's Eve Headwashing Ceremony hosted by New Orleans' most popular manbo Sallie Ann Glassman is one of these occasions. 

Manbo Sallie Ann Glassman stands before the altar

dedicated to Madame Marie Laveau.

 

 

For a number of years, Manbo (yes, that's the correct spelling in Haitian vodou) Sallie Ann Glassman and her community of initiates and followers known as La Source Ancienne Ounfo have hosted a St. John's Eve headwashing ceremony at Bayou St. John.  An altar honoring Marie Laveau is erected on the footbridge that crosses the bayou at the landmark of Cabrini High School, and the faithful assemble there at a specified time to celebrate the powerful Queen of New Orleans Voodoo.  Madame Laveau is evoked, petitioned to manifest to the community by possessing Manbo Sallie Ann or another of the company and to make herself known.  Unlike demonic possession, possession by a good spirit or one of the Lwa is looked upon as a positive experience in vodou, and one to be celebrated by any devotee.  I have personally seen Manbo Sallie Ann possessed by Marie Laveau's spirit, and not just at St. John's Eve rituals, but have also witnessed other attendees at the summer headwashing experience spirit possession.  The phenomenon is unpredictable and cannot be manipulated even by the High Priestess; it is amazing to witness.

Manbo Sallie Ann ministers to a possessed

devotee at a previous headwashing ceremony.

 

The public has always been invited to the St. John's Eve ceremonies and each year Manbo Sallie Ann, assisted by other initiated priestesses and priests, perform ritual headwashings upon each other and the public who attend.  The goal of the ritual is simple, to wash away negativity and those thoughts or beliefs that may be holding one back, and to replace them with positive thoughts and affirmations of renewal for moving forward.  Manbo Sallie Ann doesn't deviate very much at all from the type of ritual Madame Laveau would have conducted at her long-ago bamboulas, something interesting to keep in mind for the folklorist or historian in the audience.

Then again, it might be difficult for anyone to make that connection with history given the realities of attending a public voodoo ritual in the heat of June amidst a press of people.  Just as Marie Laveau's St. John's Eve rituals attracted crowds of the curious and the superstitious, so does the ceremony hosted by Manbo Sallie Ann.  In the several years that I have been attending the ceremonies, I have noticed the numbers of actual initiates and devotees remaining mostly constant, and can readily recognize some other attendees who have been around for a while.  But with each passing year the press of spectators and curiosity-seekers has increased until now, unfortunately, these people outnumber the old-line attendees.  

 

Insofar as the local residents of the St. John's bayou neighborhoods are concerned, the annual ritual is yet another opportunity to participate in what they see as a kitschy and trendy New Orleans activity.  And before you take me to task you might be interested to know that I say this after having sighted a family reclining under a TENT complete with grill and ice chests, a young hipster-chic woman tip-toeing through the grass in a white crinoline slip and very little else, and two jewelry-laden women emerging from a ginormous house with wine glasses, chattering gaily as if this old-line ritual was just another attraction at White Linen Night.  Yes, attendees are asked to wear white, but even the High Priestess is in white cotton and manages with bottled water . . .

Whether or not all this makes Madame Marie Laveau less-inclined to put in an appearance at the headwashing ceremony that is meant to be honoring her is left to rumination.  But I do worry that the annual ritual may outgrow itself, or indeed may have already done so, and might become more about the attendees and their idea of what constitutes a chic trend, somewhere else to see-and-be-seen, and less about the vision and historical purpose of the ceremony overall.

 

This aside, several interested tourists and passers-by were eager to ask questions about what was going on, and were fittingly enthralled when being told about the event.  The spark in their eyes, the glitter of a mental glimpse of something long-past manifesting right before them in modern times really struck me.  Now if we could just have a whole audience of people like that . . .

 

I realize, however, that this is not being altogether fair to Manbo Sallie Ann, a woman I love and admire tremendously.  She is, after all, a force to be reckoned with, and she has helped so many in her community that it is understandable for that community to follow her and embrace her whenever they can.  As a matter of fact, she does an awe-inspiring job of being the link not just to spirit on behalf of her servite, or to shaping vodou for a forward-thinking crowd, but also to the deep roots of our city's past.  And if there is anyone in visions of vodou that one can most easily picture standing beside Madame Marie Laveau on the shores of Bayou St. John's past it is Manbo Sallie Ann Glassman. 

 

As she teaches and often says, "We reach from here," pointing at her heart, "to infinity."  I cannot imagine Marie Laveau would in any way take issue with that!

Manbo Sallie Ann washing the head of

a ceremony attendee.

WHAT:  St. John's Eve Headwashing Ceremony in honor of Marie Laveau

WHERE:  "Magnolia Bridge," the old footbridge across from Cabrini High on Bayou St. John,
                  New Orleans

WHEN:  Annually on or about St. John's Eve (June 23rd)

 

For more about the Holy Day of New Orleans Voodoo visit this link:

 

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-holy-day-of-voodoo-st-john-s-eve