THE YEAR’S LETRA

The Year's Letra, among the Cubans and another large group of religious, people is nothing but the odún or sign that will rule among the santeros, babalawos and people related to the Santería religion. Its reading is done days before or after New Year's eve. Egboses, offerings and exorcisms will be done in order to be on the right track.

The Year's Letra guides religious people so as not to sin out of ignorance. It indicates and warns about events during these days. A good reading of the sign in question will help getting rid of all the evil that may occur. It also says who the god or the gods are that rule and protect the followers. The weather and the epidemics are predicted, and the course of life is interpreted as well.

Many of us, Cubans and many others too who are not, await the Year's Letra, even if the predictions later become real or not. Those who are religious will be guided faithfully, and so they will follow the iré and leave behind the osogbo.

The oracle of ifá does not notice all the events of the year and of life.

The babalawo in Cuba is the senior priest in the regla de ocha, a unique expression on the Cuban island. It is a simple syncretism, but profound like no other modern religion is. It is dialectical in its formation. It is an answer created by the concept of resistance.

African syncretism was not a law. It started to emerge as the very needs of worshipping grew. The emotional struggle against the oblivion of their lands, in their own ways and forms, their adoration and cruel domination, gave rise to encystment in their gods.

That is how Santeria was built, consolidating itself until today in the five continents with a presence not so spontaneous, but with a deep study. Today human genes are reunited with this religion, consolidating it every day through the dialectical phenomenon that is intrinsic since its founding.