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Haiti News Media > Haiti News > Rara Groups - Haitian Voodoo Rara Groups, Haitian Voodoo http://www.haitimusicvideo.com/index.php/tag/raraEvery year, beginning during Lent and culminating on Good Friday, rara bands march the rural roads of Haiti. Rara activity is found throughout Haiti, but two locations have become centers of rara culture. One is the town of Leogane, a thirty minute drive south of Port-au-Prince. The second is the Artibonite Valley of central Haiti, particularly near the country towns of Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite and Verrettes.
A rara band is composed of men and women, members of the congregation of a particular Houngan or Mambo, or more frequently, of a Makaya Bokor or Sanpwel President. One folk tale claims that the rara bands represent the Jews who mocked Christ on his road to Golgotha, but a rara band actually exists to demonstrate the strength and wealth of a particular congregation, the number of able bodied and desirable men and women the group has, and the richness of the costumes they are able to afford. It also demonstrates the strength of the fierce protective lwa of the group, which protect group members from the lwa of other groups.
The musical instruments of a rara band are unique. They include drums, of course, carried on shoulder straps by the most stalwart members over miles of dusty country roads. Horns made from beaten out hunger-relief oil tins, with "Gift of the American People" still clearly marked on them, make trumpet sounds, one note from each horn. The pitch of the note is determined by the size and shape of the horn, and a rara band will ususally have three or four such horns. The amazing variety of melody and cadence rara musicians can produce from four droning notes is a testament to their inventiveness and creativity.
Rara groups are definitely tied to voodoo and are generally organized by voodoo priest/shaman. A Rara band typically moves through the villages and towns in southern and central Haiti from Mardigras to Easter (that is, the entire Lenten season), dancing slowly. Musicians carrying bamboo tubes, drums and homemade horns or trumpets. The drums are homemade, hollowed-out logs with animal, skin covers held taut with pegs. The horns are made from sheet metal and resembled funnels with extended necks. These musicians are grouped together in front of the slowly moving group
There is a definite structure to each group which will hold several parades during the Lenten season. In addition to the voodoo priest, there will be an orchestra leader, the traffic control people, and even a treasurer.
Rara groups often sing songs which have more to do with local gossip than with strictly religious themes. Often the group will be asked by someone to make up a song ridiculing that person's enemy. In return the person making the request is expected to give money to the Rara group. An adulterous wife or husband will sometimes be the object of a song.
Some elements of these parades resemble the giant Mardigras celebrations of New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro and Haiti's capital city of Port-au-Prince. It is, in fact, referred to as the Carnival (or Mardigras as we say in English) parade of the rural Haitian peasant.
Christians do not participate in the rara bands. Nor do these bands normally stop in front of Christians' homes. In some areas they are even respectful of churches, keeping noise to a minimum as they pass in front of them. In other areas they seem to delight in disturbing church services.
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