Offerings

After writing the post about Voodoo, I started noticing little offerings everywhere I went.  Alin thought it was very amusing how every time I'd spot one I had to grab my camera.  Below is actually a Voodoo temple, you can tell because of the flag - its a square shape and generally the same block color pattern.  Around this temple, we found many, many spirit offerings.

Below, the offerings are in the black plastic bags.

I've always loved this tree, but I had never noticed the offering hanging from it until after my Voodoo talk with Alin.

Just to clarify, I asked Alin recently how many of the offerings we were spotting were to give spirits whom someone wanted to perform some sort of evil task for them - as opposed to the number of offerings that he thought were meant for good - and he just laughed.  He said, "first of all, the offerings aren't to get them to do something specific, they are an obligation." I was confused by this, and after asking for clarification he told me, "it's a part of being involved in Voodoo, offerings are something you do ALWAYS, not only when you want your spirit to do something in particular.  For that, you just need to ask your spirit specifically." Oh, right.