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Esoteric Calendar

Afro-Caribbean Diaspora Calendar 2026

Baron Samedi, Papa Legba, Changó, Yemanjá, and the living calendar of the African diaspora.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Cyclical Rhythms

These cycles repeat throughout the year. Their dates shift with the moon and stars.

Browse by Tradition

The orishas across the water

The African diaspora religions, Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería, and Brazilian Candomblé, carried the gods of West Africa across the Atlantic in the hold of the slave ship. To survive, the orishas and lwa hid behind Catholic saints, and the calendar still shows the seam: the feast of Changó falls on Saint Barbara’s day, and Yemanjá, the ocean mother, is honoured where the Church keeps its sea-Madonnas.

These are living, powerful traditions, not relics. Some dates are devotional, the feast of a particular orisha or a healing pilgrimage; others are historical and political, like the anniversary of Bois Caïman, the 1791 Vodou ceremony in the Haitian forest remembered as the spark of the only successful slave revolution in history.

What this calendar holds

The entries gather the feast days of Vodou, Santería, and Candomblé, where the orisha and the saint share an altar. Behind the Catholic surface is an African religious calendar that crossed an ocean in chains and arrived intact.

Common Questions

What are the Afro-Caribbean religions?
The faiths the African diaspora carried to the Americas, above all Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería, and Brazilian Candomblé. They preserve West African orishas and lwa under a Catholic surface.
Why do orishas share feast days with Catholic saints?
Enslaved Africans hid their gods behind Catholic saints to keep worshipping them. The pairings stuck, so Changó is honoured on Saint Barbara’s day, Yemanjá alongside sea-Madonnas, and so on.
What is Bois Caïman?
A Vodou ceremony held in Haiti in August 1791, remembered as the spark of the Haitian Revolution, the only successful slave revolt to found a nation. Its anniversary is kept as a sacred and political date.
Are these living religions?
Yes, very much so, with millions of practitioners across the Caribbean, Brazil, and the wider diaspora. The calendar here marks their feast days as they are actually kept.