...Continued...
Near the gate or entrance to the courtyard (or, in some cases, scattered about the chapelle) is a small secluded area. Here the "tombs" (also called "stools" or "pere-oguns" or "memorial stones") to the Orisha are placed. There are five to seven such "tombs" dedicated to the major gods. These are generally flat, raised, cement platforms (but sometimes merely mounds of earth) on which are placed candles, flowers, pottery jugs, bottles of olive oil and other sacred items. Protruding from the centre of each "tomb" is an implement that is associated with the particular god. When these are metal they are charred or burned. Two of the gods (Ogun-St Michael and Shakpana-St Jerome), as well as others, have flags of their sacred colour set on long bamboo poles waving over their "tombs". Shakpana-St Jerome has a forked branch with a burned pottery jug resting in the fork implanted in his "tomb". Leaders, who are more often today designated by the title Baba or the feminine Iya or the honorific title of "elder", hold a major feast once a year, usually beginning after Easter or around Christmas time. Ebos are sometimes scheduled on a particular saint's day venerated by the leader. The feast begins on a Tuesday evening and continues uninterrupted until the final animal sacrifice on Saturday morning. Following an interval of one week, and if the leader can afford the expense, another feast is held from Wednesday evening until Saturday morning. This is known as "the return" and is explained thus: "when you give somebody something, it's nice to get a return". The "return" does not appear to be practised much today; a oneweek ceremony usually suffices. Sometimes a leader will depart from the Tuesday schedule and begin a feast on a Sunday evening if divining or a dream has said to begin on that day. Occasionally some leaders give one- or two-day feasts to commemorate special events at odd times during the year, for example, on New Year's Day.
A typical feast begins anywhere between nine and eleven in the evening. In earlier times, approximately twenty-five to fifty people were seated in the palais on rough wooden benches and a compaAmwle number circulated about the courtyard. Today the numbers attending a feast have dropped markedly; there can be as few as ten. At this time the atmosphere is rather casual: people joke with each other, renew friendships, eat dinner, play with children and the like. Despite the mood of jocularity, the air is filled with tension and suspense. Occasionally a few people in the palais begin singing, with or without the accompaniment of the drums. As soon as the leader and the mongba (teacher) who leads the singing enter, the latter frequently holding a rosary and a candle, and kneel in the centre of the palais, people come to attention. The mongba begins chanting the Lord's Prayer, Hail Marys, sometimes the Catholic Litany of the Saints and other Catholic prayers. He recites line by line as the audience responds with antiphonal chants. At times he interrupts the prayers to sprinkle water from a pottery jug into the four corners of the palais. The same prayers are constantly repeated and the entire prayer period can last as long as two hours. (In some Ebos today there is an attempt to eliminate, or at least reduce, the number of Christian prayers chanted. In one Ebo given by a well-known elder, however, the prayers lasted for well over an hour with worshippers kneeling throughout this lengthy period.) At some of the progressive iles, the evening begins with Yoruba song followed by Yoruba prayers to each of the major deities being honoured at the feast. If a member can pronounce the Yoruba, the prayers are read in that language and an English translation is then provided.
Publication Information: Book Title: Reclaiming Kmtyw Religions in Trinidad: The Socio-Political Legitimation of the Orisha and Spiritual Baptist Faiths. Contributors: Frances Henry - author. Publisher: University Press of the West Indies. Place of Publication: Barbados. Publication Year: 2003.