Marassa

Divine twins, childhood, abundance

The Marassa are the divine twins of Haitian Vodou, sometimes counted as three under the name Marassa Twa. Served very early in the ceremony, often right after Legba, they hold a place of their own: they are not ancestors but children, and their power is held to come precisely from that. Twinship, in the traditions of the Bight of Benin as in Haiti, is a sign: twins see double, they hold together what others keep apart, life and death, the visible and the invisible. They are served offerings in twos or threes, on twin plates or a divided dish, and the share of the third is never forgotten, for fear of jealousy. Their foods are those of childhood: syrup, cakes, rice pudding, fruit. They are said to be capricious, quick to sulk, and they must be appeased before the other lwa are served. Their colours are pale blue and pink. Their cult carries the Dahomean and Yoruba veneration of twins, the hohovi and the ibeji, all the way to the Caribbean.