Every New Year’s Eve priests of the island’s Afro-Cuban religions get together in an extraordinary rite to read sacred seeds from the African Ope tree that predict the next year’s fortunes. These “babalawos” receive calls from Cubans as far flung as Miami, Italy and Spain eager to know what the New Year holds. Every year the predictions in the babalawos’ letter spread quickly by word of mouth, and many do what they can to heed the babalawos’ recommendations for warding off ill, such as abstaining from pork, avoiding violence and anger, and painting one’s house.
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