Couldn’t they just cast a spell and get more converts?

PLAINE DU NORD, Haiti – Carrying candles and a heavy spiritual debt, Josephine Derulien walked for 17 hours to reach this small farming town, swollen by thousands of people during an annual four-day pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage, one of the most important in the Voodoo religion, began Wednesday with rituals to Ogou, the god of war, and ended Saturday with rites to the goddess of love, Erzuli. This year’s crowd of more than 10,000 was half the turnout of last year.

“I swore I would make this pilgrimage,” said Derulien, 30, wearing a blue dress with a red kerchief, the traditional colors of Ogou. “I had a problem and it was solved. Now I’m here to pay my debt.”

Although millions still practice Voodoo – now a state-sanctioned religion in Haiti – some are turning their backs on the religion brought from Africa, testing other faiths as their Caribbean nation grapples with growing instability and poverty.