verver

verver

Haitian Creole

Noun

verver

1. In Haitian vodou, a geometric design traced or painted on the ground with a mix of corn flour and ash, as part of a ritual of summoning or communicating with a deity.
   • 1940, "The Vodun Service in Northern Haiti", American Anthropologist, p. 238:

     Fais verver pour moun, s'ou plè. Make verver for me, if you please.

     After making verver the officiant turns attention to the twins.

   • 1956, Bulletin du Bureau d'ethnologie, p. 40-41:

     Le premier geste du prêtre vodun est de tracer sur le sol des signes cabalistiques avec de la semoule de maïs, du sirop, du tafia (eau-de-vie de canne) et de la liqueur, en chantant une chanson sur la fabrication du verver.

   • 1987, Fodor's Travel Publications, Fodor's Caribbean 1988, p. 226:

     The verver, a geometric design traced on the ground in corn flour, is the emblem of the deity being summoned. The verver is also believed to be the original inspiration for Haitian painting.

   • 2010, John Szwed, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World, p. 101:

     Elizabeth... learned the rituals and deities, the two of them standing on the edge of the Vodou services, watching the houngan prepare a verver (a ground painting done with a mixture of ashes and cornmeal) appropriate to the deity addressed in the service...