Initiation.
The head is shaved and painted, the orisha is seated on it, and the initiate spends days in seclusion in white, is fed like an infant, learns their prohibitions and emerges with a new name. In Cuba the year that follows requires white clothing every day. It costs a great deal and people save for years.
Initiation varies across the tradition and the diaspora forms are the best documented. In Cuban Lucumí, kariocha — making ocha — involves the shaving and painting of the head, the ritual seating of the orisha on it, a week of seclusion during which the initiate, the iyawó or bride of the orisha, is treated and fed as a newborn, presentation to the drums, and the reading of the itá, a divination that sets out the person's prohibitions and guidance for the rest of their life. A year and seven days follow during which the iyawó wears white every day, avoids crowds, does not go out after dark and observes numerous restrictions. Ifa initiation, itefa, is a separate track. The costs are substantial — commonly thousands of dollars in the Americas — because the ceremony requires many priests, many animals, drummers and materials, and people frequently save for years. This is not concealed and is not regarded as a scandal.
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