Vodun Days · History
The 10 January Vodun day is a decision of the Vodun dignitaries, gathered in Ouidah in 1991. The state followed: Ouidah 92 in 1993, the first national festival in 1996, the law in 1997. It became the Vodun Days in 2024, and its date left 10 January that same year. Three decades that tell less the story of a festival than that of a recognition.
Verified on 29 July 2026
Dates and milestones verified in open sources. We do not cite the decree number for the institution of the Vodun Days that some sources advance: we were unable to confirm it. Law no. 2024-32 of 2 September 2024, however, is established.
Compiled by the After Vodundays team, in Ouidah.
Before all this
Vodun did not wait to be celebrated in order to exist. It has structured life on this coast for centuries, with its convents, its lineages, its prohibitions and its own calendar. What follows does not recount the birth of a religion, but the way a state came at last to recognise it.
1991
From 28 May to 4 June 1991, Vodun dignitaries met at the Maison de la Culture in Ouidah for the first national symposium on Vodun worship. One of their resolutions: to institute a Vodun day every 10 January. His Majesty Daagbo Hounon Houna II recalled it in 2020: the decision came from the dignitaries themselves, and the government followed it afterwards.
1993
Launched by President Nicéphore Soglo on 10 April 1992, the first world festival of Vodun arts and cultures was due in December 1992. Postponed, it took place from 8 to 18 February 1993 in Ouidah, with Unesco's support, and kept its name: Ouidah 92. Delegations from Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States found the source there. This is the origin of the still common confusion that dates the 10 January festival to 1993.
1996
After nearly five years of back-and-forth between the government and the National Assembly, Benin celebrates its first national festival of traditional religions in January 1996, on 10 January. Vodun is recognised on an equal footing with the other religions: it ends a status of exception and begins its legitimate presence in public life.
1997
Law no. 97-031 of 20 August 1997 institutes the annual festival of traditional religions, set on 10 January. It remained in force until law no. 2024-32.
From 2016
Patrice Talon commits to promoting Vodun well beyond the borders. The logic shifts: it is no longer only about recognising a religion at home, but about presenting it to the world as heritage, and making it a lever of development for Ouidah and for the country.
2024
The celebration expands over several days and takes the name Vodun Days. It leaves the format of a single public holiday to become an international appointment, with its stages, its village, its conferences and its host sites laid out across the town.
2 September 2024
This is the point almost every source still reports wrongly. Law no. 2024-32 replaces the fixed date of 10 January with the second Friday of January and the Thursday preceding it, both public holidays. The festival gains a long weekend, designed for international arrivals. In 2027 this gives the long weekend of 7, 8 and 9 January, with the Grand Ceremony on Friday the 8th. The government then extended the programming to the full week, from 2 to 9 January.
Today
Attendance has multiplied sevenfold across three editions, from 97,000 participants to more than 740,000. It is no longer the same event: what was a national celebration has become an appointment the worldwide diaspora writes into its calendar, with everything that implies in terms of hotel saturation and necessary preparation.
The 10 January Vodun day was born of a resolution by Vodun dignitaries, gathered in a national symposium in Ouidah from 28 May to 4 June 1991. It was first celebrated as a national festival in January 1996, then written into law no. 97-031 of 20 August 1997. It took the name Vodun Days, and its expanded format, in 2024, under the presidency of Patrice Talon.
The first world festival of Vodun arts and cultures, launched by President Nicéphore Soglo on 10 April 1992, was due in December 1992. It was postponed to 8-18 February 1993 and kept its name. That shift is why many believe the 10 January festival dates from 1993: the two events are distinct.
Law no. 2024-32 of 2 September 2024 replaced the fixed date of 10 January with the second Friday of January and the Thursday preceding it, both public holidays. The choice creates a long weekend, designed for international arrivals. This is why the dates shift each year.
Yes. Vodun was officially recognised as a religion in Benin in 1996, three years after the institution of the national day dedicated to it.
Because they describe the pre-2024 regime, without having taken in law no. 2024-32. It is the most widespread error on this subject, and it propagates from one site to the next. Always check the date against the calendar of the second Friday of January.