Vodun Days · Standing rightly
These are not museum rules. They are the conditions under which families agree to open their home. The rule changes from one site to the next, and it is negotiable nowhere.
Greetings
Before dress, before photography, there is the gesture that opens or closes a door: the greeting. In a convent, at a guardian family's home, in front of a Hounon, the order in which you greet matters more than the words you use.
The eldest first
In a room or a courtyard, the oldest or most senior people are greeted before the others, even if they are not the first ones you see. Your guide tells you who to greet, and in what order.
You wait to be invited to sit
Remaining standing until a seat is offered to you is not stiffness. It is the sign that you understood where you are.
You do not speak first to a dignitary
In front of a Hounon or a guardian family head, you wait to be addressed before speaking. Silence, at that exact moment, is not discomfort.
The exact words are learned before you leave, not in an article
Three greetings in Fon change the temperature of a meeting more surely than a gift, and a mispronounced word wounds more than it touches. We teach them to you in the conversation that precedes your departure: it is the first step of our reception protocol.
This arrival protocol, before the sites themselves, is detailed step by step on Will you be recognized as one of us.
The body
Shoes come off
At the entrance to certain sacred enclosures, including that of the central altar of the Python Temple. Bring shoes that come off quickly: complicated laces will cost you time and composure.
Dress covers
Shoulders and legs. Required at the Sacred Forest of Kpassè, appreciated everywhere else. This is not imposed modesty, it is the sign that you know where you are.
White, near the water
If you approach the sanctuaries of Mami Wata or the shore during a ritual, immaculate white is the customary colour. Bring a white item, it will serve.
The head uncovers
Before the sacred iroko of Kpassèzoun, hats, caps and sunglasses come off. Bring headwear you will agree to remove.
Photography
Free
In some courtyards, on public squares, during parades.
Supervised
With the agreement of the official guide, and only on what they designate. This is the case for the pythons presented at the Temple.
Forbidden
In initiation rooms, before certain altars, during certain moments of a rite. Without exception.
The same place can shift from one regime to another within the same day. A camera put away at the right moment will open more doors than one more photograph will earn you.
The rule: when in doubt, do not photograph, and ask.
The offering
A blessing given by a guardian comes with an offering. Strong drink, kola nut, sometimes palm oil. The gesture buys nothing: it inscribes your passage into an exchange that existed before you and will continue after.
What is offered, to whom, and at what moment varies by place and by lineage. Do not guess. Your guides will tell you, and that is precisely one of the things they are there for.
At the sanctuaries of the waters, offerings are sweet: perfumes, flowers, fruit, sweet liquors. They are laid into the waves, not on the sand.
The trance
A person falls into trance in front of you. This is neither a medical episode nor a performance. The deity speaks, and people whose charge this is have supervised this moment since always.
What you do
You step back. You make room. You let it happen.
You do not approach. You do not touch. You do not photograph. You do not call for help, and above all you do not try to assist: what you take for distress is a known, expected and held state.
It is the simplest rule on this page, and the one most broken, out of good will.
Silence
Silence is not an emptiness in Ouidah. It is a language of its own, and it has its rules.
During a Fa consultation
A Bokonon consulting the Fa needs total silence around him. A full consultation takes several hours, and a question asked at the wrong moment interrupts it. You do not speak while he is working, you do not question him before he has finished.
During a veillée
The evening ceremonies open to you are held at a more intimate register than the daytime ceremonies, and call for particular dress and silence. This is not the moment to comment on what you see.
In front of a trance
You step back, you make room, you let it happen. Silence is the first of the three rules, even before the physical step back.
The words
Avoid
Voodoo. Black magic. Witchcraft. Superstition. Fetishism. These words come from a vocabulary that served to disqualify a civilisation, and they are heard immediately.
Say instead
Vodun. A cult, a tradition, a religion. A Hounon, a priestess, a Bokonon, an adept, an initiate. A ceremony, a rite, an offering, an outing.
An awkward question offends no one here. Using the vocabulary of those who tried to destroy all of this does.
Night rites. The outings of the pythons through the town. Consecration altars. Initiation rooms. The sanctuary of relics. The restricted sanctuary at the foot of the iroko of Kpassèzoun. All of it stays closed to the uninitiated, during the Vodun Days as during the rest of the year.
No sum opens it. We do not sell access to what is not for sale, and no one honest will in Ouidah.
It is precisely because this core has stayed closed that the rest is still alive. A cult that had opened everything would have nothing left to show.
Established and reviewed
Content established in Ouidah by Hounon Agbessi Avlessi W. Bertian and the After Vodun Days team, drawn from the real protocols of the places and the guidance of their guardian families.
Reviewed and validated by Vincent Adjaman, FRABO, guardian of the tradition, Ouidah. Verified on 29 July 2026.
Order matters more than words: greet the oldest or most senior person present first, wait to be invited to sit, and do not speak first in front of a dignitary. The exact greetings in Fon are taught to you in the conversation that precedes your departure, so the pronunciation is right before you introduce yourself to anyone.
It depends entirely on the site and the moment. Photography is free in some courtyards, supervised in others, formally forbidden in several. At the Python Temple it is allowed in the courtyard and with the pythons presented by the official guide, never inside the initiation rooms. The rule changes from one place to the next and is negotiable nowhere. When in doubt, do not photograph, and ask.
Yes, at the entrance to certain sacred enclosures, notably that of the central altar of the Python Temple. Bring shoes that come off quickly: complicated laces will cost you time and composure at the wrong moment.
Decently and covered, shoulders and legs. Required at the Sacred Forest of Kpassè, appreciated everywhere else. If you approach the sanctuaries of Mami Wata or the shore during a ritual, immaculate white is the customary colour. Before the sacred iroko of Kpassèzoun, hats, caps and sunglasses come off.
Nothing. You step back, you make room, and you let those whose charge it is do their work. A trance is neither a medical episode nor a performance: it is a moment when the deity speaks, held by people trained to hold it. You do not approach, do not touch, do not photograph, do not call for help.
Often, yes. A blessing given by a guardian comes with an offering: strong drink, kola nut, sometimes palm oil. It is not a tip, it is a ritual gesture. Your guides will tell you what, when and to whom, since it varies by place and lineage.
No, and this matters. Night rites, consecration altars, initiation rooms and the sanctuary of relics remain closed to the uninitiated. This cannot be bought. What is open to you is already considerable; what stays closed is what allows all of this to still exist.
Before the programme, an older and heavier question: will you be recognized as one of us when you arrive? We answer it with nothing softened.
That is our guides' work: telling you what to do at the moment it needs doing, without your having to think about it. One guide for ten, and you are at ease.