A good example of living together
Although Protestants and Anglicans are present in the archipelago, and a number of Emirati, and therefore Muslim, families have settled here in recent years, Seychellois are above all Christians and attend church very regularly. On Sundays, all shops except a few (notably Hindu-owned grocery stores) are closed. Before taking to the beaches of the archipelago with the family for a picnic to music, we go to mass, which is always joyful and colorful. On Sundays, dress is everything! For many, Sunday mass is an opportunity to show off their best toiletries or a pretty shirt, then chat for a long time in front of the church after the service. Communion or christening ceremonies, full of lace and hats, remain a highlight of Seychelles social life, as do the major Christian religious holidays (Christmas, Easter, Ascension, etc.), all of which are of course celebrated as they should be.
But these practices do not exclude others... The Christian faith goes hand in hand with a religious syncretism that includes disparate elements of animist faith and ancestor worship of African origin. There is a belief in the existence of ill-identified supernatural beings (such as Malfaisants or evil spirits, or Dondosias or zombies), in more or less harmful gestures and objects, and in witches and sorcerers known as wood givers or bonshommes and bonnes femmes de bois, whose alleged magical powers are coupled with a knowledge of medicinal plants, or raspail (this term being derived from the name of François Raspail, a French chemist who wrote a Manuel de médecine et pharmacie domestique much in demand in the Seychelles). Although the government enacted a law in 1958 to eradicate witchcraft, "bonhommes di bois" and "bonnes femmes di bois" are still consulted by some elders, whether to evoke a disappointment in love or a fierce hatred, to explain a strange dream or to perform an abortion. Sorcerers sell charms (decoctions of leaves and roots, vials with hair, needles tied crosswise with blue thread, etc.) and pronounce incantations. But, as a sign of modernity, the new generation seems much more distant from these superstitions. However, there's no question of sweeping the courtyard after six o'clock in the evening, as that would mean sweeping away all its riches... Two centuries of occultism don't disappear overnight!
