What is the difference between New Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo?
New Orleans Voodoo actually may be equated with Hoodoo in other parts of the country, although some would dispute this. Hoodoo tends to refer to the knowledge and practice of the “work” of the spirit without the strong emphasis on the religion. Voodoo, as practiced in New Orleans, tends to have the same emphasis, although some modern-day priests and priestesses initiated in Haiti, Benin, and other counties are working to bring back the emphasis on religion that has been lost over time. People who practice Hoodoo in other parts of the country might be called root workers or root doctors as opposed to priests or priestesses of a religion. In New Orleans, practitioners of Voodoo may be called Doctor, Deacon, Bishop, Priestess, Queen, or any other number of titles. This may be, in part, because the influence of organized Christian religions on the region encouraged root workers to adopt titles such as these in order to establish their authority in an otherwise decentralized tradition. Mode
