New Orleans’ International House hotel is celebrating a uniquely New Orleans holiday with an equally unique New Orleans “vodou queen.”
On the feast of St. John’s Eve on June 23, the hotel will host an evening of rum cocktails and ritual head-washing. The symbolic ceremony will be led by Sallie Ann Glassman, an ordained priestess of the French-Caribbean vodou faith who owns the city’s Island of Salvation Botanica store.
Glassman will design an altar including a 10-foot papier-mache statue of New Orleans’ original vodou queen, Marie Laveau.
The feast is one of seven annual rituals spotlighted by the hotel, including Carnival, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day, and St. Joseph’s Day.
“The idea is to share with guests how joyful, exotic, spiritual and completely authentic this city remains, a proud people shunning the Brooklyn-Portland-ization that strips identity from so many other places in this Instagram age,” said Sean Cummings, International House’s co-owner.
