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For some Jamaicans, the approach of a chanting revivalist will send them dashing to 'safety', as their presence, they believe, walks hand in hand with omens or death.

But, Director of the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica, Dr Kirt Henry, said the chanting and beating of the drum are never for evil purposes.

"Drumming itself is a language, and just like the colours of revival, you beat the drum based on the purpose. You will beat the drum to wake up the community and you can beat it to signal a message that you are giving. You can also beat it to invite a particular spirit or to get rid of certain spirits. That is why in Kumina, the drums are placed on the ground as Kumina deals with Earth spirits, and when you beat the drum it provides a vibration that goes down to the ancestors," Henry said.

He was a participant at the National Revival Conference held at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre in St Andrew yesterday. Revivalism is an African Christian religious worship that emerged in Jamaica in the early 1860s.

"A lot of people refer to revival as 'pocomania' but you won't find a revivalist referring to themselves that way because the term is a colonial term, which 'poco' means 'a little' and 'mania' means madness. This was the colonialism way of saying 'hey this is a group of mad people', just because they expressed themselves differently from European Christian ways of worship," Henry said.

The religious practice comes with many symbols including the breaking of coconuts and the usage of water during spiritual cleansing.

"Water is used to absorb spiritual energy and its similar to when you paint you house. You put a bucket of water in it to absorb the fumes, and so it is for spirituality and for rituals of healings in revival and so on," he said.

Whether it is quenching the thirsts of the water spirits or feeding the ancestors, a revival altar is often seen with food and drink items such as dried coconuts, grapefruits, water and cream soda. Each item, Henry said, is spiritually important and a coconut is not always used for seasoning rice and peas or making pastries or cooking oil.

"By the act of breaking the coconut, it means that the area is rid of an evil spirit or spell and that is why when sumpn drop and break, yuh tun yuh roll. It means that you are turning off any negative energy within the space. Turning your roll three times represents Father, Son and the Holy Spirit," he said.

A revivalist temple or table usually has a variety of candles and these Henry said are not for decoration purposes.

"Candles and their colours are very significant in revivalism. A candle has three parts - the wax, wick and flame. The wax is the body of Jesus Christ, the wick is the Father and the flame is the Holy Spirit. The colours of the candle depends on the purpose for which it is being used. Lets say you are burning a candle for wealth, you would buy a green candle because green in spirituality symbolises prosperity and healing," he said.

"The colour red is what we call a two-fold meaning, as on one hand it means the blood of Jesus Christ and the other hand it means fire. Fire is for cleansing and for dispelling negative energy and that is why Rastas burn Babylon with fire," Henry added.

While some may still turn up their nose at the practices, Henry said their flock has grown tremendously over the years and is attracting many younger folks. This was evident at the conference that attracted hundreds of 'wrap head' persons.

"There is about 36,000 persons in Jamaica who are revivalists. A lot of conscious youth, they have particular questions about their identity and roots that mainstream religion can't answer. You find this happening right across the diaspora and you will find people going back to their rural religions or going back to Africa to get initiated. And in revival now, you have a lot of working and middle class people including doctors and lawyers who are proudly calling themselves revivalists," Henry said.