User:LAmadefairy/New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum

New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum is a voodoo museum in New Orleans, United States, that's been situated between Bourbon St. and Royal St. in the centre of the French Quarter since 1972. Although it's a small museum, consisting of two rooms, it is one of few museums in the world dedicated entirely to Haitian Vodou art which is art related to the Haitian Vodou religion. The museum strives to maintain the history of voodoo through entertainment and education.

History
Voodoo, a religion connected to nature, spirits and ancestors, came to New Orleans in the early 1700s, through slaves taken from Africa’s western slave coast. Voodoo then grew as many freed African Americans made its practice an important part of their culture. Vodou, as a religious system, originates from spiritual practices in Dahomey, located in what is now Benin. Vodou is a word that means “spirit” or “deity.” It was then integrated with the city’s presiding religion, Catholicism. Which then became a Voodoo-Catholicism mix, often referred to as New Orleans Voodoo. The core belief of voodoo is that spirits alone interfere in daily lives instead of a God. Connection with these spirits is obtained through various rituals such as offerings, dancing, music, chanting, and snakes. In the city, Papa Legba, one of the Voodoo deities that controls the gates to the spirit world, became known as St. Peter. Apostle of Jesus Christ who holds the keys to the gates of heaven. Today, Voodoo lives on in New Orleans and citizens see it as part of their culture.

Activities
This museum also offers a wide variety of activities and offerings such as: museum walkthroughs, where you will find the historic relics and art of the rich culture of voodoo, haunted cemetery tours through the St. Louis Cemetery, also known as the City Of the Dead, where you will find the tomb of Marie Laveau. Laveau was also referred to as the Vodou queen of New Orleans. She was born to an African woman, Marguerite Darcantel, and a mulatto man, Charles Laveau. Laveau’s powers reportedly included healing the sick, overseeing spiritual rites, and extending altruistic gifts to the poor. Psychic readings are attemps to discern information through the use of heightened perceptive abilities. These natural extensions are claimed to be clairvoyance/ vision, clairsentience/ feeling, and clairaudience/ hearing. These readings are offered along with rituals, ceremonies, and consultations, along with academic research assistance.

Nearby
The French Quarter is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city of New Orleans. You can find copious amounts of restaurants, bars, and clubs on Bourbon St. along with the streets in close proximity. Many other small museums and voodoo shops can be found in the streets of the French Quarter also, including Marie Laveau's House Of Voodoo, and Museum Of Death (NOLA). The St. Louis Cemetery, where haunted tours of the City of The Dead are available, is also located nearby on Basin St.