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And the buoyancy of the common people bubbles to the surface in part in the form of the festas populares (the largest and best known of which is of course Carnival), parties where the vicissitudes of life are temporarily cast off and old as well as young vão no pé (get up on their feet), moving in Bahian expression to the rhythms of Africa (albeit often layered under a sheen of sythesizers and pop stylings). I'll take the festas in the order in which they appear from the beginning of the year. (Note: In Portuguese the term festa profana is often used, in contrast to festa religiosa. "Profana" simply means a non-religious component of something religious (i.e., a festival), unlike the English-language connotation of something vulgar or irreverent.) Reveillon (New Year's Eve)... ...is traditionally celebrated by dressing in white, lighting votive candles set into depressions in the sand on the beach, and tossing flowers into the sea in offering to Yemanjá, goddess of the salt waters. Then in common with much of the rest of the world, the turning of the year is marked by spectacular shows of fireworks (at the Farol da Barra and at various points northward along the seafront). Following this, in front of the farol (lighthouse), on an enormous stage set up for the purpose, are musical performances by some of the best musicians Brazil has to offer (2003/2004 featured Toquinho, among others). These performances are televised throughout Brazil. During the hours leading up to midnight the whole stretch from the farol to Porto da Barra is packed with people, while the beach at Porto da Barra is set up for partying: barracas decorated with palm fronds, tables on the beach, sound-systems, etc. The party at Porto continues on for hours after midnight. ...Festa do Senhor Bom Jesus dos Navegantes This is the movement of a boat aptly called Gratidão do Povo (Gratitude of the People) -- carrying an image of Senhor Bom Jesus dos Navegantes -- into the water of the bay from a church there, by means of rails, to be accompanied in a maritime procession by a flotilla of other boats. By now it's well into a new day and a new year, and probably time to go home. Festa da Lapinha (or de Reis) Takes place from the 3rd through the 6th of January in the Largo da Lapinha, in remembrance of the Three Wise Men of the Nativity. Farol Folia... ...takes place on a to-be-announced date in January, along the seafront from Boca do Rio to Patamares. It's basically a pre-enactment of Carnival, with Carnival blocos parading their trio elétricos. The event originally took place in Barra, close to the Farol da Barra (hence the name), but the residents of that area could only stand so much non-stop partying and the event was moved further up the coastline. This is Salvador's second biggest festa, falling on the first or second Thursday (depending on who you ask; it seems to vary according to the whim of some power-that-be) after the Dia de Reis (the Epiphany...the day the Christ-Child was visited by the Three Wise Men led by the star) on January 6th. The Lavagem do Bonfim is a paragon of Bahia's syncretism and merging of the sacred and the irreverent, wherein a group of flower-carrying Baianas -- followed by tens of thousands of people (a cortejo) -- walks from the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição in the cidade baixo, to the Igreja do Bonfim (a Catholic church) -- and where upon arrival the Baianas wash the steps of the church in honor of the Senhor do Bonfim (who is either Jesus Christ, or Oxalá, or both, depending on how you look at it). It's a huge party the whole way, with lots and lots of batucada (drumming), and a huge party around and behind the Mercado Modelo (earlier in the day), and a monstrous party around the Igreja do Bonfim (later in the day and into the night). Festa da Ribeira... ...or Segunda-Feira Gorda (Fat Monday), the Monday immediately following the Lavagem do Bonfim. The barracas (drink stands) around the Igreja do Bonfim pull up and move down the way to the neighborhood of Ribeira, where there is another huge party along the waterfront. Festa de São Lazaro (Saint Lazarus) January 25th through 28th. Celebrated at and around the Igreja de São Lazaro in the neighborhood of Federação. São Lazaro is syncretized with Omolu -- the orixá governing sickness and health -- and during mass inside the church worshippers receive a banho de pipoca (popcorn bath), a ritual common in candomblé. Lavagem de Itapoan January 27th, 2005. Big. Takes place in Itapoan (or rather, it stretches along the seacoast from Piatã to Itapoan). This is the last lavagem before Carnival (and it can be kind of rough). Lavagem de Santo Amaro Celebrated for over 200 years (originally by slaves) in the town of Santo Amaro, in the Recôncavo (73 km distant from Salvador), this festa is historically set on the first Sunday before the Festa de Nossa Senhora de Purificação, but has grown to encompass the week or so before that Sunday and several days after. Lots of samba de roda.
February 2nd. One of Salvador's most beloved (and beautiful) festas, and another exemplar of Salvador's melding of the sacred and not quite profane. The morning of the 2nd is announced with the sound of fireworks (at 5:00 a.m.), and the faithful arrive early to the seaside neighborhood of Rio Vermelho, bringing flowers and other gifts for Yemanjá, Yoruban goddess of the salt waters. The offerings are left in the Casa do Peso (the weighing house used by the local fisherman) after the givers have endured the long lines leading up to the repository, the gifts to be gathered up and placed into boats which at 4 p.m. or so will make their way 6 miles out into the waves to place floating, gift-bearing baskets upon the water. Offerings which do not return to shore are deemed accepted. This all takes place to the accompaniment of wandering troupes of drummers, street capoeira, and general merriment and abandon. As the day wears on the festa becomes more and more carnivalesque -- thousands of people pouring in -- inexorably evolving into a dancing, surging street party of gargantuan proportions.
Carnival ... begins on February 11th in 2010. This king of festivals is deserving of its own section and is covered here. Festa de Arembepe... ...takes place in Arembepe, 42 km to the north of Salvador, on a determined date during the month of February. ...takes place in the town of Santo Amaro (in the Recôncovo, 73 km from Salvador) from the 10th through the 14th of May (these are the dates for 2006). The festa ("Bembé is a corruption of "Candomblé"; "Mercado" comes from "Praça do Mercado" -- or "Marketplace") was first celebrated (in Santo Amaro's marketplace, of course) on the 13th of May, 1889, by Santo Amaro's black populace in recognition of the abolition of slavery in Brazil one year before (more specifically, João de Obá took his people's newfound liberty to task by openly playing the rhythms of candomblé in a public square, whence grew a festa around him), and the festa has been celebrated every year since with the exceptions of 1958 (when an explosion/fire killed 300 people) and 1989 (when the biggest flood in the history of the city took place). The festa is now regarded as protecting the city!. Bembé do Mercado is replete with folkloric presentations, including samba-de-roda, nego fugido, maculelé, capoeira, and bumba-meu-boi. On the morning of the 14th Santo Amaro's terreiros de candomblé gather up offerings to Yemanjá, releasing them into the waters of the bay from the praia (beach) of Itapema on the Baia de Todos os Santos (until 2002 the offerings were released at São Bento das Lajes, a district of São Francisco do Conde). Corpus Christi The 10th of June. Celebrated in Pelourinho. Festa de Santo Antônio June 13th. Celebrated in the Largo de Santo Antônio, at the far end of Salvador's neighborhood of Santo Antônio além do Carmo (Pelourinho being at the other end). Santo Antônio is the patron saint of matrimony, his assistance sought by young women hoping (praying) for husbands. This festa opens the June celebrations. June 24th is the official date for the festa, but the buildup runs all through June. This buildup consists of forró (foHO) -- hillbilly music, sometimes of great artistry (Luiz Gonzaga, and his son Gonzaginha, both now deceased, are excellent examples) from Brazil's Northeast -- and dances to forró . The traditional instruments in a forró band are accordeon, hand-drum, and triangle, (sanfona, zabumba, and triângulo), but the music has become very commercialized and you'll hear synthed-up forró on the radio and at the big shows. For an example of old-time forró played by the genre's giant, put on your straw hat and... São João is a harvest festival, and in a sense it feels a lot more like Christmas than Brazil's "real" Christmas (or Natal). This is because it's a family-and-friends gathering, the tradition being to head into the interior, to the pequena cidade (small town) one or one's family hails from. If you don't have your own pequena cidade there are plenty of them in the interior promoting parties in June -- putting on shows and hosting quadrilhas (square dancing) for the general pubic. Amargosa is one of the best-known. Traditional accompaniments to São João are foods made from corn (milho), licor de genipapo (sweet liquor made from the genipapo fruit), bonfires, and firecrackers (the latter tending to go off all during June, to the chagrin of many good citizens!). During the festas juninas the Parque de Exposições (Exhibition Park) north of Salvador is all fixed up like a town in the interior and shows -- extremely popular shows primarily featuring the big, commercial forró bands -- are staged. Should you go, stick to the crowded areas; wandering off alone is an invitation to your money being taken in order to finance somebody else's partying. Festa de São Pedro (Saint Peter) This festa in honor of the patron saint of widows and fishermen, held on the 29th of June (more forró), winds up the June celebrations. 2 de Julho, Independência da Bahia (Bahian Independence Day) Celebrated in Campo Grande. Festa da Boa Morte Takes place in the town of Cachoeira, Bahia (110 km from Salvador, on the Paraguaçu river), on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of August, under the auspices of the Irmandade da Boa Morte (Sisterhood of the Good Death). Festa de São Roque Celebrated on the 16th of August in the São Lázaro area of the neighborhood of Federação. 7 de Setembro, Independência do Brasil (Brazilian Independence Day) Features a military parade down Avenida Sete de Setembro (which happens to be named for this particular date). On the 27th of September, the f esta of the two Arab saints, a day when everybody eats carurú, a kind of vegetable stew made from quiabo (okra). When people say they are having a carurú however they mean that guests are served a traditional plate including this food (and vatapá, among other things ), something representative of people coming together in family and friendship. Dia da Baiana (Day of the Baiana) November 25th. Participated in by dozens of Baianas traditionally dressed in white hooped lace dresses and colored beads representative of various orixás, Dia da Baiana opens with a mass at church Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos (Church Our Lady of the Rosary of the Blacks) on the Largo do Pelourinho...and continues with a lunch of traditional Bahian food, samba de roda and other activities at the SENAC restaurant, also located on the largo. This festa is not traditional, having been started by state tourism agency Bahiatursa in the '80s. Caminhada Axé... ...is a march -- from Ondina to Barra -- which takes place sometime during (or close to) the Brazilian summer. No trio-elétricos, lots of drumming and folklore. Dia do Samba December 2nd. Dia do Samba was created by the Câmara Municipal (Salvador City Council) in the 1940s to honor composer Ary Barroso (who was born on this day), the first show in commemoration of the day taking place in 1972 with the participation of Gilberto Gil. Subsequent years have included and continue to include Bahia's greatest sambistas. Festa de Santa Bárbara December 4th. Santa Bárbara is syncretized with Iansã, wife of Xangô and goddess of the winds. A mass is celebrated in her honor at church Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos (7 a.m.), and later (11:00 a.m.) a procession proceeds through Pelourinho to the Corpo de Bombeiros (Fire Station) in the Baixo dos Sapateiros, where participants are greeted by the sounding of sirens (Santa Bárbara is the patron saint of firefighters) and a grand carurú to be served to the public. From there everything moves on to the Mercado de Santa Bárbara where the stallholders have prepared their own carurús to be served to the public (5 p.m.), and where it is very, very crowded. Red and white are the colors to be worn. Festa da Nossa a Senhora da Conceição da Praia Nossa Senhor da Conceição da Praia is the patron saint of Bahia. Held on December 8th, this festa in the cidade baixa (in the area of the Mercado Modelo and locally referred to simply as "Conceição") kicks off the festival season (December 8th being the day of the Catholic Church's Festa da Nossa Senhora da Conceição). Festa de Santa Luzia December 13th, on Rua do Pilar in Comércio. |
