{"id":1233,"date":"2014-01-10T11:53:36","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T11:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rhworldimagery.wordpress.com\/?p=1233"},"modified":"2015-04-02T15:47:14","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T15:47:14","slug":"voodoo-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/10\/voodoo-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Voodoo Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every January thousands of Beninese flock to the town of Ouidah for the annual Voodoo Festival. Some 40% of the population of the West African country of Benin practice Voodoo (known also as Vudun), a much misunderstood belief system and way of life in which around 100 spirits represent different aspects of nature, including lightening, water\u00a0and healing. Voodoo informs every aspect of everyday life including music, culture, philosophy and medicine.<\/p>\n<p>Kings and dignitaries gather for the festival in Ouidah, Benin (age fotostock\/Robert Harding)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/results.php?Search=voodoo\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1234\" alt=\"Kings and royal families, International festival dedicated to the art and culture of Vodun (voodoo), Town of Ouidah, Benin, Western Africa\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/817-143594.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/817-143594.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/817-143594-369x245.jpg 369w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><!--more--><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A Voodoo market in Benin (Still Pictures\/Robert Harding)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/results.php?Search=voodoo\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1235\" alt=\"Voodoo market, benin. Cotonou\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1030-12316.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1030-12316.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1030-12316-368x245.jpg 368w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>See more Voodoo pictures from around the world <a href=\"http:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/results.php?Search=voodoo\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every January thousands of Beninese flock to the town of Ouidah for the annual Voodoo Festival. Some 40% of the population of the West African [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[116,311,377,862,1078,1127,1129,1130,1139],"class_list":["post-1233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-benin","tag-documentary","tag-festivals","tag-religion","tag-travel-photography","tag-vodun","tag-voodoo","tag-vudun","tag-west-africa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Voodoo Festival - robertharding<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/10\/voodoo-festival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voodoo Festival - robertharding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every January thousands of Beninese flock to the town of Ouidah for the annual Voodoo Festival. 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