Benin, one of the main centres of Vodun, celebrates the religion every January in Ouidah, a key site of the slave trade, where straw-covered Zangbétɔ appear, Egungun masquerades return as the dead among the living, and priests of Fá read the omen for the coming year.
Photo: Eureka9090, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Benin’s entry in this atlas is the national festival of Vodun, celebrated on and around the second Friday of January and above all in Ouidah, a city with deep Vodun roots and a memorial site of the transatlantic slave trade. Since 2024 it has grown into the Vodun Days, a multi-day programme of ceremonies, masquerades and concerts.
Each January the faithful of Benin’s Vodun convents come out into the streets and onto the beach of Ouidah — Zangbétɔ night guardians in straw, Egungun masquerades and Vodun dancers — for a festival that ends in a great ceremony where priests of Fá announce the sign for the year.
January 2 – 9, 2027Officially announced