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The Petro rites appear to have originated in Haiti during the slavery days. The name Petro allegedly comes from Don Juan Felipe Pedro, a Spanish Vodoun priest and former slave who contributed a rather violent style of dance to the ceremonies. Many of the Petro practices, including more violent worship services, and the use of red in the ceremonial clothing and on the face, which came from the Awak and Carib Indians who then lived on Saint Dominque. The Petro loas tend to be more menacing, deadly, and ill-tempered than other loas; many of their names simply have the appellation Ge Rouge (Red Eyes) after a Rada name to signify the Petro form. Pigs are sacrificed for the benefit of the Petro Loa.

Petro worshippers only use two drums, and they are covered with goatskin and struck only with the hands. Rigaud reports the drums are considered cannibalistic, even demonic, and their syncopated rhythms are difficult to control in magic operations rendering them dangerous. The first drum is identified with thunderbolts, and their patron Quebiesou Den-Lah; the second and smaller drum with Guinée or the extremity of the world which receives the thunderbolt.