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Higher power shower: Voodoo worshippers wash themselves under Haitian waterfall in annual ritual

• Followers of saint Our Lady Mount Carmel travelled to Saut d’Eau to cleanse themselves in the water 
• They showered in the water which is believed to have purifying powers and shouted a list of wishes to the virgin
• The group of men and women also used leaves to wash away their sins and bad luck 
• Thousands travel to the waterfall to honour the virgin, who is said to have appeared on a palm tree there in 1847

Followers of Haiti’s most celebrated patron saint have made their annual pilgrimage to a remote waterfall in a bid to cleanse themselves of their bad luck and sins.

Voodoo worshippers travelled to Saut d’Eau, 42 miles north of the capital Port-au-Prince, to wash in the water which is believed to have purifying powers.

As part of the cleansing ritual, they delivered a list of wishes to improve to their lives and used leaves to wash away negative omens.  

Lionel Saint-Jean, who attended the gathering, said that after losing his house in Haiti’s catastrophic 2010 quake, he asked the saint for a new one and he got one. 'So I came this year to thank her for that,’ he said. 

Haitians have travelled to the same spot for hundreds of years to bathe because the virgin saint is believed to have appeared on a palm tree there in 1847.

 Voodoo, or Vodou as many practitioners prefer, evolved from West African beliefs and adopted elements of Roman Catholicism.

Immersed: A voodoo pilgrim stands in the middle of the waterfall which is believed to have purifying powers

Crowd: Thousands of Haitians travel to the spot every year in a bid to wash away their negative omens 

Procession: The ritual involves percussion-led music and dancing. Most participants strip down to their underwear as part of the annual tradition

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