He demands respect and even gratitude when he claims a victim, and so people sometimes honor him with the praise name Alápa-dúpé, meaning “One who kills and is thanked for it”.

[6][7] Venerated by the Ewe, there is a similar figure with the praise name Anyigbato who is closely associated with sickness [8] and displaced peoples.

[11] Syncretized with Saint Lazarus, and regarded as particularly miraculous, Babalú-Ayé is publicly honored with a pilgrimage on December 17, when tens of thousands of devotees gather at the Church and Leprosorium of Saint Lazarus in El Rincón, in the outskirts of Santiago de las Vegas, Havana.

[16][17][18] Some lineages of Candomblé relate myths that justify Babalú-Ayé being the child of both Yemoja and Nana Burukú.

In these myths, Nana Burukú is Babalú-Ayé's true mother who abandons him to die of exposure on the beach where he is badly scarred by crabs.

[19] Because of his knowledge of the forest and the healing power of plants, Babalú-Ayé is strongly associated with Osain, the orisha of herbs.

Oba Ecun (an ornate in La Regla de Ocha) describes the two orisha as two aspects of a single being,[20] while William Bascom noted that some connect the two through their mutual close relationship with the spirits of the forest called ijimere.

[21] The narratives and rituals that carry important cultural information about Babalú-Ayé include various recurring and interrelated themes.