Throughout Haiti this week, the people of the villages will enact the Judas hunt, an ancient Holy Week ceremonial which they have colored and absorbed into their own folklore. In effigy, "Monsieur Judas" will come to visit the peasants as one of the twelve apostles and an honored guest. But as soon as the death of Christ is announced on Good Friday, the symbolic traitor will flee, and the hunt will begin early on Holy Saturday.*
The Judas figure varies throughout the Black Republic, according to local artistry and whimsy. In Colonie des Vacances. a prosperous village of whitewashed mud and...
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