Also known as: Notre Dame de l'Assomption, Feast of the Assumption, Assumption feast day
Last updated: April 26, 2026
The feast of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, celebrated on August 15, mattered in revolutionary Saint-Domingue because Catholic feast days created legitimized opportunities for gathering and movement in a slave colony where assembly was always politically charged. The vault sources identify August 14, 1791 — the eve of the Assumption feast — as also coinciding with celebrations for the Vodou lwa Ezili Kawoulo, and the Morne-Rouge assembly gathered on that same day. Colonial authorities had feared feast-day gatherings since the 1720s, when missionaries warned that hundreds of enslaved people sometimes assembled under liturgical cover; the Assumption therefore belongs to the broader pattern where Catholic calendrical time and Vodou time overlapped to create space for insurgent organization.
The Bois Caïman ceremony coincided with the feast day of Notre Dame de l'Assomption, patron saint of the colony, providing cover for the gathering
Connected to the religious and ceremonial dimensions of the revolutionary republican moment in Saint-Domingue.
The August 1791 organizing sequence around Morne-Rouge and Bois Caïman coincided with the Assumption feast
August 14 - eve of the Assumption feast - was the date of the Morne-Rouge political assembly
The feast was observed across Saint-Domingue including at Les Cayes and Cap-Français
The feast day overlapped with celebrations for Ezili Kawoulo, illustrating the layering of Catholic and Vodou calendars
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"Notre Dame de l'Assomption." 1791. Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/events/notre-dame-de-lassomption. Accessed 2026-05-05.