Areito is a term used by the Taino people to describe a community gathering.

The Areito was a party, a song, a dance, and a rhythm, all at the same time. Since they had no written history, the Taino passed it on from generation to generation through their dances and songs. This history is also referred to as the Areito.

Ancient Taino worshiped in both private and public ways. Areitos were celebrations which honored not only the Spirits but also the persons hosting it along with the invited guests. Epic songs were sung and danced to. Tekina were the ceremonial leaders of the Epic songs that recounted both the deeds and the exploits of the ancestors. There was however also room for the creation of new songs and dances. The Spanish documented that the Casica Anacaona was famous for her compositions and choreography for the Areitos. They even mention in one account that she organized an Areito where over a thousand maidens danced in honor of the Spanish.

These celebrations took place in the Batey. That is the area where the sacred ball game was played. It was important that all creation witness the Areito. Song and dance were a form of prayer. It was a way for the community to be and move as one. It connected everyone to the common ancestor and reinforced the sense of kinship. Every important event in human life was celebrated with an Areito.

Areito were round dances and recitation ceremonies, where thanksgivings were made for various natural and plant spirits, and the ancient stories were told. They included the most ancient of Creation time stories, of Deminan and his three skydweller brothers, the four Taino cosmological beings (four sacred directions) who walked on clouds and blue sky over the spirit world of the Caribbean. Orphaned by their virgin mother at birth, the sacred beings, called Caracaracolesin Taino, wandered the sky islands, here and there receiving creative powers from ornery old shamans who carried it from even farther back. This way, out of gourds (jicaras), they created the oceans and fish; out of a turtle, the islands; from spirit babies, toads; and from toads, the rains and waters; from clay and stars, men; from jobo trees, their prayer statues; and, from the river manatee, exquisite source of sustenance, women.

At the Areito, carved wooden statuettes, called cemis, representing the various forces, were polished and addressed, fed and smoked for. A tribal meditation and vision took place, often with the use of the sacred herb, cohoba, a hallucinogenic snuff compounded from the seeds of anadenanthera peregrina. In the areito, elements of the plant and animal life were remembered. There were Areitos and cemis for the season of Huracan, singings for the four beings, for the origin of the sun and moon, the ocean and fishes, the snake and jutia, for the guayaba, the ceiba, the corn, the name and the yucca. Yucca, a tuber and their main food, was the special gift, and singularly represented by the Yucahu, the Taino's identification for the Supreme or Original Being.