The Patron Saint of Death, Recipes and Spells for Wiccan Holidays, and More

On today’s installment of Interfaith Voices:

The Cult of Santa Muerte

Drug traffickers and police, maligned women and any who feel death may be imminent: those who venerate Santa Muerte, the folk saint of death, are an eclectic group of somewhere around 10 million people. Often dressed as a bride and carrying a scythe, the “bony lady” rivals the popularity of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the beloved icon of the Virgin Mary.

Wiccan Recipes From the ‘Witch in the Kitchen’

If you’re planning a Samhain (SOW-in) feast, think seasonal: apples, pumpkin, figs, and squash are popular ingredients for the Oct. 31st holiday “when the veil between the worlds is thin.” In the Wiccan tradition, cooking for this supernatural celebration entails respecting the changing earth and honoring departed loved ones.

Hazzans: Judaism’s Sacred Singers

For more than a thousand years, sacred singers called cantors, or hazzans, have led Jewish congregations through sung prayers. The melodies are a mix of traditions, designed to make worship more effective, and more beautiful. Now there’s an online home for more than 100 examples of cantor songs, first recorded in the mid-1980s for the “History of the American Cantorate” project.

Featured speakers/guests:

Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint; Cait Johnson, author of Witch in the Kitchen: Magical Cooking for All Seasons; Mark Slobin, professor of music and American studies at Wesleyan University;
Mark Kligman, professor of Jewish Musicology at Hebrew Union College

Share This Episode