Case file · Folklore / legend
St. John's Eve Voodoo rites, Bayou St. John
New Orleans papers in the 1870s reported crowds gathering on Bayou St. John and Lake Pontchartrain on 23 June for St. John's Eve Voodoo ceremonies associated with Marie Laveau.
1874 CE · 29.98, -90.09 · status: account
The account
Reporters described bonfires, singing, a ritual head-washing and bathing in the lake. Practitioners still hold a head-washing ceremony on the bayou each St. John's Eve.
The sceptical view
The press accounts are often sensational and racist, and some 'ceremonies' were staged for paying white spectators.