Marassa, sacred twins of Vodou
Marassa (also Marasa, Marasa Dossou, Marasa Twa) are the sacred twin loa of Haitian Vodou and rank among the oldest and most deeply rooted spirits of the pantheon. Unlike most loa, who appear as individual personalities, the Marassa always appear as a pair or as a group of three.
They are invoked before every major ceremony and are regarded as mediators between people and the other loa. Their veneration points back to a very old West African tradition of sanctifying twins.
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West African roots
The veneration of the Marassa has its roots in several West African traditions. Among the Yoruba, twins are venerated as Ibeji, one of the central Orisha manifestations with its own rites and images.
Among the Fon in present-day Benin, the birth of twins is likewise regarded as a sacred event that requires special ritual attention. The high rate of twin births in West Africa, in particular in Yoruba land, which has one of the highest twin birth rates in the world, may have contributed to this religious specialization.
In «Le vaudou haïtien», Alfred Métraux drew the connection between West African twin veneration and the Haitian Marassa and showed that the basic structure, the veneration of twin spirits as a sacred pair, has been preserved in the Caribbean, while the concrete form was reshaped in a Caribbean way.
In «Mama Lola», Karen McCarthy Brown documented the familial and everyday practice of Marassa veneration and showed that the spirits play a central role above all in households with twins.
Marassa as child spirits
In Vodou practice, the Marassa appear as children or as youthful spirits. When they ride a believer who serves as their horse, that person behaves childishly, asks for sweets, plays with toys and speaks in a high, sometimes lisping voice.
This childlike manifestation distinguishes them clearly from the adult loa of the other families and creates a special emotional closeness to those present.
In «Divine Horsemen», Maya Deren described the childlike appearance of the Marassa as a theological statement: they represent the mystery of childhood, of innocent knowledge and of undivided perception.
The Marassa know things that adults do not know, precisely because they have not yet ordered the world into the categories of adult logic. This epistemic privileging of the childlike is an aspect of Vodou theology that has been little researched but plays an important role in religious practice.
Marassa Dossou and Marassa Twa
Within the Marassa tradition, two main forms are distinguished: Marassa Dossou and Marassa Twa. Marassa Dossou denotes the pair together with a later-born sibling who represents the spirit of a deceased twin.
In the traditional West African understanding, the child born after twins is considered spiritually connected to the twins, often as their «completion». In Haiti this idea is preserved and shapes the families in which twins are born.
Marassa Twa («Three Marassa») denotes a configuration of three made up of two twins and an accompanying spirit, who is often connected with the supreme loa Damballa or appears as a cosmic third.
This threefold structure recalls the Christian Trinity in its structure and was occasionally compared by Vodou practitioners with the Father, Son and Holy spirit scheme, without any theological identity being implied. Leslie Desmangles treated this parallel as an example of the «double religiosity» of Vodou.
Invocation and ritual practice
The Marassa are invoked before every major Vodou ceremony, often directly after Papa Legba, the loa of the ways and of opening.
Their invocation is regarded as a necessary preparation for all further invocations, because the Marassa establish cosmic balance and place the ritual proceedings under their protection. Neglecting the Marassa can, according to Vodou understanding, lead to jealousy among the spirits and to disturbances of the ritual.
The offerings for the Marassa consist above all of sweets, cakes, bananas, toys and small objects that bring joy to children. A traditional form is the «table des Marassa», a small table with food and gifts that is set up before the main ceremony.
The Marassa are invoked in their own sequence of songs, whose drum rhythm differs clearly from the adult rhythm of the other loa.
Familial practice at twin births
In Haitian families in which twins are born, the veneration of the Marassa is especially intense. The parents carry out special rites throughout their lives in order to nurture the spiritual connection between the earthly twins and the Marassa spirits.
These rites include annual offerings, the setting up of a small altar in the house, the wearing of certain pieces of jewelry and the observance of specific rules of conduct toward the twins.
When one of the twins dies, the survivor is treated with particular care, because according to Vodou understanding he now carries the soul of the deceased as well.
In «Mama Lola», Karen McCarthy Brown documented these complex familial rites and showed how the Marassa tradition shapes family identity across generations. In transnational Haitian families the tradition is also carried on in the USA and in Canada.
Syncretic identification
In the Catholic and Vodou syncretic system, the Marassa are identified with the holy twins Cosmas and Damian, who in the Catholic tradition are venerated as healers.
This identification works well because Cosmas and Damian (3rd century) are venerated as a pair of brothers and both are connected with the art of healing. In the Catholic churches of Haiti, their feast days (26 September) are linked with Vodou rites of the Marassa.
A second line of identification leads to the saints Anianus and Julian or to the «Three Wise Men», especially when the Marassa Twa are venerated in their threefold form.
This alternative identification shows the flexibility of syncretic practice: depending on context and on local tradition, different Catholic pairs or groups of saints can serve as visual anchors.
Theological significance
In Vodou theology, the Marassa embody the principle of pairing and of cosmic doubling. In numerous Vodou texts they are described as the «cosmic twins», whose connection constitutes the fundamental pattern of reality.
Maya Deren worked out this idea as central to the Vodou worldview: everything in the world appears in pairs, from the sexes through the succession of day and night to the polar aspects of the loa themselves.
This theology of pairing connects the Marassa with Damballa and Ayida Wedo, who are likewise venerated as a cosmic pair. Unlike these adult paired deities, however, the Marassa represent the childlike, pre-sexual form of pairing, which is not yet a sexual but a sibling connection.
In «Haiti, History, and the Gods», Joan Dayan worked out this theological distinction and showed how it is reflected in the Vodou conception of the person and of relationship.
Marassa in the diaspora and in research
In the Haitian diaspora, above all in the USA and in Canada, the veneration of the Marassa is carried on. Karen McCarthy Brown documented how Haitian parents in Brooklyn and Miami continue the Marassa tradition despite urban living conditions, often adapting it to the new cultural circumstances.
Toys available in the USA become a Marassa offering; local bakeries supply the cakes that are ritually required.
Scholarly research on the veneration of the Marassa is less extensive than on the prominent loa such as Damballa, Ogou or the Gede. Important contributions come from Maya Deren, Alfred Métraux, Karen McCarthy Brown and Claudine Michel.
A systematic comparative study of twin veneration in West Africa and in the Caribbean diaspora is not yet available. Sandra Barnes and Henry Drewal provided important comparative material in their work on the Yoruba Ibeji tradition, which can be used for a future comprehensive study of the Marassa tradition.
The Yoruba Ibeji tradition as background
The West African background of the Marassa can be reconstructed in the greatest detail through the example of the Yoruba Ibeji. Among the Yoruba, twins are understood as sacred persons whose birth requires a special ritual relationship of the family to the Orisha Ibeji.
If one of the twins dies in infancy, the family has an «ere ibeji» wooden figure carved that represents the deceased child and is carried on in family practice: washed, fed, cared for, adorned with small pieces of jewelry.
Marilyn Houlberg systematically documented the tradition in «Notes on Egungun Masquerades among the Oyo Yoruba» (African Arts 1978) and in several essays for «Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou» (Cosentino 1995).
In «Flash of the Spirit» (New York 1983), Robert Farris Thompson argued that the transatlantic transmission of twin veneration occurred in several waves and that the Haitian Marassa tradition represents a blend of Yoruba Ibeji and Fon Hohovi substrates.
The Hohovi are the twins among the Fon, who receive ritual attention similar to that given to the Ibeji among the Yoruba. The Haitian form integrates both substrates and supplements them with specifically Creole elements, above all the childlike and burlesque manifestation in the Vodou ceremonies.
Mange-Marasa: the Marassa meal
The most important independent ritual for the Marassa is the «mange-marasa» («Marassa meal»), which is celebrated at regular intervals in hounfors with a Marassa bond.
A table is set up with small bowls, in each bowl the same foods in threefold form: three different sweets, three cups of hot chocolate, three bananas, three pieces of corn cake.
A cross of candles is also placed on the floor, with three candles for the three Marassa groups (Marassa Ginen, Marassa Kongo, Marassa Kreyol). Small children from the community are invited to share the meal, since the Marassa eat through the children.
In «Mama Lola», Karen McCarthy Brown described a concrete mange-marasa in Brooklyn, with notes on the preparation, on the foods and on the reaction of the children.
She shows how the ritual strengthens familial and communal bonds and at the same time conveys the theological statement that the Marassa act through the childhood of the children.
Claudine Michel wrote in several essays about the significance of the Marassa for the upbringing of Haitian children and showed that the ritual practice also fulfills a pedagogical function.
The three Marassa nations
In developed Vodou theology, the Marassa are understood not only as a pair or a group of three, but are divided into three «nations» («nasyon») that reflect the three great traditions of origin of Haitian Vodou: Marassa Ginen (African and West African substrate), Marassa Kongo (Congolese substrate) and Marassa Kreyol (originating in Haiti).
Each of these nations has its own songs, its own drum rhythms and its own favorite colors. The Marassa Ginen are venerated in white, the Marassa Kongo in red and blue, the Marassa Kreyol in rainbow-colored cloths.
In «Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou» (Los Angeles 1995), Donald Cosentino documented the iconographic threefold division.
The division makes clear how Vodou ritualizes its own history of origin: the three nations are meant not only in an ethnic and historical sense, but theologically, as a representation of the three great «ways» («chemen») by which the loa arrived in Haiti.
In «Haiti, History, and the Gods», Joan Dayan worked out the cultural-historical significance of this division and interpreted it as a collective self-reflection of Haitian religiosity.
Sources and literature
Secondary literature: Alfred Métraux, «Le vaudou haïtien» (Paris 1958); Maya Deren, «Divine Horsemen» (New York 1953); Karen McCarthy Brown, «Mama Lola» (Berkeley 1991), especially the chapters on familial Marassa practice; Leslie G. Desmangles, «The Faces of the Gods» (Chapel Hill 1992); Joan Dayan, «Haiti, History, and the Gods» (Berkeley 1995); Donald Cosentino (ed.), «Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou» (Los Angeles 1995); Patrick Bellegarde-Smith and Claudine Michel (eds.), «Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth, and Reality» (Bloomington 2006); Claudine Michel, «Aspects éducatifs et moraux du vodou haïtien» (Port-au-Prince 1995). On Yoruba Ibeji: Marilyn Houlberg, «Ibeji Images of the Yoruba», in «African Arts» 7 (1973), and contributions in Cosentino (ed.) 1995; Robert Farris Thompson, «Flash of the Spirit» (New York 1983); Henry John Drewal, «Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought» (New York 1989); Babatunde Lawal, «The Gelede Spectacle: Art, Gender, and Social Harmony in an African Culture» (Seattle 1996). On the Fon Hohovi tradition: Melville J. Herskovits, «Dahomey» (New York 1938); Suzanne Preston Blier, «African Vodun» (Chicago 1995).
