Santeria redirects here. Santeria is also the name of a reggae-ska fusion band from Munich, Germany. Santeria is also the name of a song by the band Sublime.

Lukumí or Regla de Ocha , is most widely known as Santeria, (Santería in Spanish) is a set of related religious systems that fuse Catholic beliefs with traditional Yoruba beliefs. In the Yoruba language, Lukumí means "friends" and also applies to descendants of Yorùbá slaves in Cuba, their music and dance, and the cubanized dialect of the Yorùbá language.

History

The name Lukumi originated from present-day Nigeria. The Yoruba people of Nigeria were initially called the Lukumi which was supposed to be from the word "Olokun mi"(my dear one). The name Yoruba is popularly believed to have been derived from a Hausa ethnonym for the populous people to their south, but this legend has not been substantiated by historians. The term first appeared in a treatise written by the Songhai scholar Ahmed Baba, and is likely to derive from the Oyo or Yagba, two Yoruba-speaking groups along the northern borders of their terrority. However, it is likely that the ethnonym was popularized by Hausa usage and ethnography written in Arabic and Ajami.

Lukumí originated in Cuba and was historically practised by descendants of West African slaves, when slave owners purposely divided slave families and mixed members of different African

Lukumí's survival in Cuba was primarily due to this convergence of Yorùbá beliefs and Catholicism. When slave owners observed Africans celebrating a Saint's Day, they were generally unaware that the slaves were actually worshiping the Orisha. Today, the terms saint and Orisha are often used interchangeably. The common bond between the Lukumí Orisha and the Catholic saints has become a part of Cuba's religious culture. It was originally referred to as Santería (literally, Way of the Saints), a derisive term applied by the Spanish to mock followers' seeming overdevotion to the saints and their perceived neglect of God. The slaves' Christian masters did not allow them to practise their various west African religions. The slaves found a way around this by masking the Orishas as Christian saints while maintaining their original identities. The masters thought their slaves had become "good Christians" and were praising the saints, when in actuality they were continuing their traditional practices.

Lukumí is

Beliefs and rituals

Lukumí ritual is highly secretive and primarily transmitted orally. Known practices include animal offering, ecstatic dance, and sung invocations to the Orishas. Chickens are the most common sacrifice; the chicken's blood is offered to the Orisha. Fruit is also offered to the Orisha. Drum music and dancing are used to induce a trance state in specific participants, who may become possessed by an Orisha who then speaks through them (see Yoruba music). One's ancestors, egun, are held in high esteem in Lukumí. All ceremonies and rituals in the Lukumi religion begin with paying homage to one’s ancestors.

The Lukumi believe in a creator who is called Olodumare. There is no belief in the Devil. Yoruba belief has no oppositional set up - good versus evil, God versus a Devil. One strives to develop good character and good works during one's lifetime. There are concepts of negative energies however - most generated by human foibles.

Many animal rights activists take issue with the Lukumí practice of animal sacrifice, claiming that it is cruel. Followers of Lukumí point out that the killings are conducted in a safe and humane manner. The priests charged with doing the sacrifice are trained in humane ways to kill the animals. Additionally, the animal is cooked and eaten afterwards. In 1993, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah that animal cruelty laws targeted specifically at Lukumí were unconstitutional, and the practice has seen no significant legal challenges since then. Lukumi does not advocate human sacrifice.

While most of the rituals performed in Lukumi are performed safely and without injury to humans, they have in some cases turned deadly, and brought negative public attention upon the religion, especially in the United States, where public knowledge of Lukumi is not as widespread. The most highly publicized case, as reported by The New York Times and other New York City periodicals, took place on January 18, 1998 in Sayville, New York, where 17-year-old Charity Miranda was suffocated to death with a plastic bag at her home by her mother Vivian, 39, and sister Serena, 20, after an unsuccessful exorcism to free her of demons. Police found the women chanting and praying over the prostrate body. Not long before, they had embraced santeria. The mother in question, Vivian Miranda, was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and is currently confined in a New York State psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.

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