Offerings:
She likes perfume, especially atomizers of Anais-Anais - pastries, white cake, lace, hand mirrors. Orangeat (a sweet liqueur), images of the Virgin Mary, especially Mater Dolorosa, grenadine, jewellery, rice cooked in cinnamon, milk, bananas fried in sugar, mild cigarettes, champagne or white wine, and fruit, especially white grapes.
Litany:
Pour Erzulie Freda Dahomey, qui marche sur tous les points du luxe. La Maitresse de lámour, reine de la beaute, la source du reve de límpossible perfection. Belle Erzulie, coquette que vit dans láir de lélegance. Donnez-nous des reves a foison. Entendez nos prieres, Maman. Acceptez nos offrandes. Entrez dans nos coeurs, dans nos bras, dans nos jambes. Entrez ici. Dansez avec nous!
Kreyol:
Pou Ezili Freda Daome, kap mache tou patou nan riches. Metres lanmou la ren la bote, sous rev pefeksion. Ezili bel fanm, kon'n abiye. Ba nou anpil rev. Tande la priye nou, manman. Aksepte ofran'n nou. Antre nan ke nou, nan bra nou, nan jam'm nou. Antre vin'n danse avek nou!
Translation:
For Erzulie Freda Dahomey, who walks on all luxurious points. Mistress of love, Queen of beauty, the source of the impossible dream of perfection. Beautiful Erzulie, coquette who lives in the atmosphere of elegance. Give us the abundance of our dreams. Listen to our prayers, Mother. Accept our offerings. Enter into our hearts, our arms, our legs. Come and dance with us!
Traditional:
Erzulie Freda Dahomey is the Vodou Godess of love and beauty. She walks in an atmosphere of luxury and elegance. A fair-skinned mullato, Erzulie loves all trappings of refinement and wealth: lace, gold, mirrors, jewellery, and perfume. Erzulie is the force that allows mankind to dream of a more perfect life. Slaves saw the abundance off the colonialists' homes and lives, and since they knew that they could not attain that wealth, they transferred their dreams of wealth and leisure to Erzulie in the heavenly realms. Erzulie personafies an unattainable and virgin ideal. She comes to her horses as the coquette, dancing elegantly, flirting, disdaining the other women, displaying her beauty and riches. She inevitably leaves her horses in inconsolable tears, because reality always falls disappointingly short of her dreams.
