santería

santería

► nombre femenino

1 sanctimoniousness

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SF

1) Cuba (=tienda) shop selling religious images, prints, etc ; (=brujería) witchcraft

2) * = santidad

3) Caribe (Rel) religion of African origin

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santería

feminine

santería (↑ santería 1)

santeria

CULTURAL NOTE

santería

A religious cult, fusing African beliefs and Catholicism, which developed among African Yoruba slaves in Cuba. Followers believe both in a single supreme being and also in orishas, deities who each share an identity with a Christian saint and who combine a force of nature with human characteristics. Rituals involve music, dancing, sacrificial offerings, divination, and going into trances.

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santería nf

1. [beatería] sanctimoniousness

2. [religión] santeria, = Afro-Cuban religion

3. Am [tienda] = shop selling religious mementos such as statues of saints

SANTERÍA

On Cuban plantations, African slaves (mostly of the Yoruba tribe) were banned from practising their own religion, so devised a way to worship their gods (“orishas”) by giving them the names of Christian saints. For example, they changed the name of the thunder god “Changó” to “Santa Bárbara”, and “Ochún”, the goddess of love, was identified with “la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre”, Cuba's offical Catholic patron. Despite the disapproval of the Catholic authorities, santería (as this “saint worship” is known) and its rituals have survived into the present, with some forms even becoming a tourist attraction.