The Prohibition of the abuse of alcoholic beverages in Santeria

Obatala the protective Orisha of all heads was in his palace when he thought of the idea of giving man some elixir that would satisfy him and make his days more pleasant.

The latter from his ivory throne saw his cultivated fields and decided to go to them in order to make them productive and obtain from them the solution he needed to satisfy his desire.

Obatala's wish and his gift to Men

Once before the cultivated land, he began to plant a complete vineyard and thought of creating a drink with the grape that represented his intentions and that would bear his stamp of being symbolized with the color white.

The devil who was around the area asked the white Orisha what he did, to which he replied:

"I am planting these vines to give men a delicious elixir."

Abita finds out about the plan of the White Orisha and prepares a trap

Grateful and picaresque was shown Abita before the new news that he seized and thought as usual about how to do to ruin said plans.

Then a solution came to his mind quickly, he went to a savannah where he secretly sacrificed an elephant, a lion, a pig and a monkey, collecting their blood, which would be the protagonist of his dark plans.

Days passed and once the grapes were ready, Obatalá began to process them and took great care of them so that the following week they were harvested and processed, giving rise to an exquisite white wine.

That same night, while Obatalá slept, the stealthy Devil entered their vineyards and spilled the blood of animals and their enchantments on the roots of the plants. At the end of the task, he disappeared into the earth, happy to have achieved his purpose.

Curse of Abita about humanity

The grapes were harvested, processed and the liquid was bottled. During a great ceremony that took place in the house of the white Orisha, as midnight approached, it was time to taste the wine, making its entrance minutes before Abita to the feast

Obatalá was surprised to see that the wine had turned red on the man's lips, to which the Devil gladly replied:

Through this tasting all are cursed,
as long as they consume this type of drink they will think they are as strong as the elephant,
then they will feel in their body the courage of the lion,
when conceived satiated they will fall to the ground like pigs and
when everyone observes them they will begin to be the object of laughter like the monkey.

Outraged by the behavior of Abita and its traps, Obatalá ordered all his children to stay away from excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages in order to fight against the curse and embarrassment that the Devil had thrown on humanity.