Baron Samedi: SAMEDI, DIFFERENT SHIT! + Sugar Hill: "Voodoo Zombie" [BlaxploitationTrailer] + Samedi: ENERGY DRINK + SAMEDI VIDEO GAME
Baron Samedi
Baron Samedi is notorious for his outrageous behavior, swearing continuously and making filthy jokes to the other spirits. He is married to another powerful spirit known as Mama Brigitte, but often chases after mortal women.
He loves smoking and drinking and is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth or a glass of rum in his bony fingers. Baron Samedi can usually be found at the crossroad between the worlds of the living and the dead. When someone dies he digs their grave and greets their soul after they have been buried, leading them to the underworld. He also ensures all corpses rot in the ground to stop any soul being brought back as a brainless zombie. The Baron has a legion of spirits under his control. These lesser spirits, all dressed like the Baron and all are as rude and crude as their master. They help carry the dead to the underworld.
Samedi is a loa of the dead, along with Baron's numerous other incarnations Baron Cimetière, Baron La Croix, and Baron Kriminel. He is usually depicted with a white top hat, black tuxedo, dark glasses, and cotton plugs in the nostrils, as if to resemble a corpse dressed and prepared for burial in the Haitian style.
He has a white, frequently skull-like face (or actually has a skull for a face) and speaks in a nasal voice.
He is the head of the Guédé family of Loa, or an aspect of them, or possibly their spiritual father. His wife is the loa Maman Brigitte.
He is a sexual loa, frequently represented by phallic symbols and he noted for disruption, obscenity, debauchery, and having a particular fondness for tobacco and rum. Additionally, he is the loa of sex and resurrection, and in the latter capacity he is often called upon for healing by those near or approaching death, as it is only Baron who can accept an individual into the realm of the dead. He is considered a wise judge, and a powerful magician.
Baron Samedi is the most famous, and most frightening, of these spirits. A huge skeleton dressed in a dark coat or cape with a top hat and spade, the Baron is the infamous master of the dead who escorts their souls from the graveyard to the underworld. But the Baron does not concern himself with corpses - he can enter the realm of the living and force people to do his terrible bidding.
As well as being master of the dead, he is also a giver of life. He can cure any mortal of any disease or wound, if he thinks it is worth while. His powers are especially great when it comes to voodoo curses and black magic. Even if somebody has been inflicted by a hex which brings them to the verge of death, they will not die if the Baron refuses to dig their grave. So long as this mighty spirit keeps them out of the ground they are safe. What he demands in return depends on his mood.
Sometimes he is content with his followers wearing black, white or purple clothes or using sacred objects; he may simply ask for a small gift of cigars, rum, black coffee, grilled peanuts or bread. But sometimes the Baron asks for a voodoo ceremony to help him cross over into this world - a high-risk time for anyone wanting his help. Baron Samedi is one of the few Voodoo spirits that can cross from the realm of the dead to the realm of the living without a ritual - but as it is a draining process he rarely does. If he is in a good mood he may grant his followers ever lasting life, but if he is in a bad mood he may dig their graves too soon and bury them alive or bring them back as a mindless zombie. * "Baron Saturday." The Pretty Things. "S.F. Sorrow." Original Masters, 1968. * "Lover Of The Bayou." The Byrds. "Untitled." Columbia Records, 1970. * "James Bond 007: Live and Let Die," 1973. In the film, he at first appears during a party and is assumed to be merely a performer in costume. However, at a later point in the film, he literally rises from a grave as a seemingly unstoppable spirit. Even his 'death' be being trapped in a coffin full of poisonous snakes is contradicted by a scene of him looking at the audience at the very end of the film. * "Baron Samedi" Song 10CC 1974. * "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, 2001. * "Saints Row 2" Video Game, 2008. One of the gangs is known as the Sons of Samedi. Most wear rastafarian clothes along with their green gang color. Their lieutenant, Mr. Sunshine, fights the player with a voodoo doll and machete and, when defeated, a cutscene is shown where he survives being shot multiple times. * "Witches Abroad" by Terry Pratchett, 1991. * There is a guarana energy drink named Samedi in the description it says "He Passed through the edge of darkness to find a potion more powerful than life. When found, it delivered such intense energy that it is believed to have the strength to awaken the dead." * Sugar Hill (1974 film) Protagonist Diana Hill calls on Baron Zamedi to help her gain revenge on her boyfriend's killers.
When her boyfriend is brutally murdered, after refusing to be shaken down by the local gangsters running their protection racket, Sugar Hill, decides not to get mad, but BAD! Calling upon the help of aged voodoo queen Mama Maitresse, Sugar entreats her to call upon Baron Zamedi, the Lord of the Dead, for help in gaining a gruesome revenge. In exchange for her soul, the Dark Master raises up a zombie army to do her bidding. The bad guys who thought they were getting away clean are about to find out that they're DEAD wrong.