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Festa de Oxóssi

On January 20 many Brazilians celebrate the orixá Oxóssi (pronounced oh-SHAW-see) who manifests as vegetation and is represented by the forests that provide food for the world. He also represents the abundant harvest and prosperity. Oxóssi is characterized as a lone hunter with a bow and arrow and is an excellent tracker who is supplicated to find a path out of any difficult situation, a solution to any problem, or to achieve a targeted goal. His colors are green and sky blue, and offerings for him are axoxó (red corn with coconut), various fruits, roasted black eye peas. He is also syncretized with the Catholic saints George and Sebastian.

 

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Lavagem do Bonfim

This celebration happens on the second Thursday after Epiphany (Three Kings Day). It is the second most popular party in Salvador, after Carnival. The washing of the Igreja do Bonfim (Church of Bonfim) steps is a  tradition that mixes the faiths of the two main religions:  Catholicism and the Candomblé. The mães de santos, female priests in the Candomblé religion, dress in ritual costumes and start the procession at the Conceição da Praia church by walking, dancing, singing religious songs, and carrying flowers up to the top of Bonfim Church. There, they wash the stairways of the church with scented water.

Senhor do Bonfim became an object of popular devotion due to his powerful miracles. He is syncretized with the orixá Oxalá (Obatala). Thousands  of believers accompany the procession in search of protection, to pay a hommage, purification of their soul, or simply to have fun. It’s a huge party with lots of batucada (drumming). A huge party starts around the Mercado Modelo earlier in the day and an even bigger party continues around the Church of Bonfim later in the day and into the night.

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Candomblé

Candomblé is a religion based on West African traditions (mainly from the Yoruba, Ewe, Fon, and Congo ethnic groups) which also combines elements of Catholicism and is practiced in Brazil. Practitioners believe in one supreme God who is worshiped by honoring a number of deities called orixás which each represent spiritual forces of nature. It is believed that all things in nature, including ourselves, contain God’s (Olodumarê) axé, which is the life force energy or essence that creates existence. By honoring the orixás, we can increase and improve our own spiritual energies and live in harmony and balance with nature and one another. Spiritual worship through atabaque drumming, singing, and dancing produced the rhythms that gave birth to the origins of Samba, the national music of Brazil.

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Reveillon (New Year’s Eve)

 

Reveillon

New Year’s Eve in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil is a festive and relaxed environment. Thousands of Bahians dress in white with their champagne bottles ready to commemorate the New Year. To secure blessings for the new year, roses are presented to Yemanjá, the orixá of the sea, while some also have a midnight sea bath. At the Barra Lighthouse (Farol da Barra), people enjoy Brazilian pop music concerts until sunrise.