Today is the birthday, in 1801, of Marie Catherine Laveau a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo, an herbalist, and a midwife who was renowned in New Orleans. She was known as The Voodoo Queen. Her daughter, Marie Laveau II (1827 – c. 1862), also practiced rootwork, conjure, and Native American and African spiritualism, as well as Louisiana Voodoo and traditional Roman Catholicism. An alternate spelling of her name, Laveaux (a plural), is considered by historians to be from the original French spelling.
Marie Catherine Laveau was born a free woman of color in New Orleans’s French Quarter, Louisiana. Her mother, Marguerite D’Arcantel, was a free woman of African, European, and Native American ancestry. Because Laveau’s mother was not married at the time of her birth, her father was not identified on her 1801 baptismal record. A possible candidate is Charles Laveau, the son of Charles Laveau Trudeau, a white Louisiana creole and politician. Other historians claim that Laveau’s father was a free man of color named Charles Laveaux.
Following the reported death of her husband, Jacques Paris, she entered a domestic partnership with Christophe Dominick Duminy de Glapion, a nobleman of French descent, with whom she lived until his death in 1855. Marie Laveau was a dedicated practitioner of Voodoo, a healer, an herbalist, and an entrepreneur. Laveau was also known as a prominent female religious leader and community activist. She also made money by selling her clients gris gris as charms to help their wishes come true.
In her role as a Voodoo practitioner, customers often appealed to Laveau for help with family disputes, health, finances, and more. Laveau performed her services in three main places – her own home on St. Ann Street, within Congo Square, and at Lake Pontchartrain. She was the third female leader of Voodoo in New Orleans. Of Laveau’s magical career, little can be substantiated, including whether or not she had a snake she named Zombi after an African god, whether the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic saints with African spirits, and Native American spiritualism.
Laveau’s name and her history have been surrounded by legend and lore. She is generally believed to have been buried in plot 347, the Glapion family crypt in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans. Tourists continue to visit and some draw X marks in accordance with a decades-old tradition that if people wanted Laveau to grant them a wish, they had to draw three Xs on the tomb, turn around three times, knock on the tomb, yell out their wish, and if it was granted, come back, circle their Xs, and leave Laveau an offering.
Numerous songs about Marie Laveau have been recorded, including “Marie La Veau” by Papa Celestin; “Marie Laveau” written by Shel Silverstein and Baxter Taylor and recorded by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show (1972), and Bobby Bare (1974); “The Witch Queen of New Orleans” (1971) by Redbone; “Dixie Drug Store” by Grant Lee Buffalo; “X Marks the Spot (Marie Laveau)” by Joe Sample; “Marie Laveau” by Dr. John; “Marie Laveau” (2013) by Tao Of Sound; “Voodoo Queen Marie” to the minstrel tune “Colored Aristocracy” by The Holy Modal Rounders; “The Witch Queen of New Orleans” by Total Toly; “The Widow Paris” by The Get Up Kids; “Marie Laveau” by the Danish metal band Volbeat; and “The Widow Paris” by Lester T. Raww’s Graveside Quartet.
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Today is the birthday, in 1945, of Puerto Rican musician, singer and composer Jose Feliciano, best known for many international hits, including his rendition of The Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’. His 1968 album Feliciano! reached No. 2 on the US charts. Jose was born blind as a result of congenital glaucoma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l145cg01O4k
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