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The quantity of festas in Bahia is often remarked upon, often together in the same cliched breath along with "Terra da Alegria" ("Land of Happiness") or some such other similar hyperbole. Happy? That's debatable, certainly improbable given the widespread economic conditions here. But buoyant, resiliant, appreciative? Among the various traits and qualities which form the general ethos of Bahia, these three could be said to run wide, and deep. 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). The yearly cycle is generally considered to kick in with the Festa de Santa Bárbara, so that's where I'll begin... (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.) 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 Baixa 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. Epa hei!
The clip above is from the 1962 film Pagador de Promessas, which won the Palm d'Or in Cannes that year. The setting is the Escadaria de Carmo, leading up to the Igreja do Passo (Igreja de Santa Bárbara in the film) on the day of the festa.
December 8th, Festa da Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Praia
You've got to hand it to the way Catholic feast days happen here in Salvador. For example, December 8th is the feast day of Nossa Senhora da Conceição -- Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception -- a putative commemoration of the day in 1854 that Pope Pius IX declared it to be dogma that Mary was conceived without the Original Sin resultant from Adam's partaking and sharing of the Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden, ecclesiastic understandings which would lead to theological pronouncements upon unbaptised babies condemned to hell (St. Augustine), later to be modified to eternity in limbo (as explicitly expressed by Pope Pius X, for whom the elementary school I attended was named), limbo later to be waved away by our current sanctus patronus pedophilus, Pope Benedict XVI (presumably a great relief for a great many African, Asian, and Jewish baby souls, assuming St. Augustine doesn't have God's ear).
Morning Mass is celebrated in the church in the cidade baixa (lower city) named for this particular designation for Mary, and the rest of the day is beer and music. Original Sin be damned!
Festa de Santa Luzia December 13th, on Rua do Pilar in Comércio. 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 which 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. Interestingly, this festa had a lot to do with the development of Carnaval in Rio, something which I'll have to take up at a later date. 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). The first to arrive at the Igreja do Bonfim, having walked the 8 kilometers from the Igreja da Conceição, are the Baianas, closely followed by the publicity-seeking politicians, followed upon by the drumming, dancing, cerveja-imbibing multitudes.
The celebratory step-washing is touted as, and in some respect in fact is, a manifestation of the syncreticism of Catholicism and Candomblé, but the fact that it's the steps that are washed and not the interior of the church itself is a reflection of a Catholic (and not so catholic) repudiation of the West African beliefs by the church poobahs. In the immortal words of Paulinho Camafeu, quem tem fé, vai à pé (he or she who has faith, goes on foot!). 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 Big. Trio elétricos. 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 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 March 3rd in 2011. 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. The Bembé
do Mercado
Santo Amaro is here, at the north end of the Baía de Todos os Santos. The origin of the name is polemical...some say it's a deliberate corruption of candomblé, meant to disguise the fact of what was actually happening in the market square. Another take is that of ethnolinguist Yeda Pessoa de Castro (per Luzia's book below), which is (my translation): "Bembé is a word which could have two etymologies. One is Fon (Yoruba/Nagô), Bembé meaning "drum"... It could also be of Bantu (Congo/Angola) origin, in this case meaning a religious ceremony, praise, a prayer, as with the word candomblé itself..."
Why the 13th of May? Because it was on that date in 1888 that slavery was abolished in Brazil, by the signature of Princesa Isabel, Princesa Imperial Regente. And it was on the 13th of May in 1889 (some say it was several days earlier) that candomblé priest João Obá stood by the Subae river just off of Santo Amaro's market square and began to play a rhythm which when played in a house of candomblé was/is meant to call down a deity.
One by one others arrived, and began dancing the dances of candomblé in what was the first instance of these religious manifestations being conducted outside a place meant for that purpose. And so a century later the tradition continues in Santo Amaro's market square proper, on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday incorporating May 13th (although Friday, being the day of Oxalá and a day in which candomblé is never conducted, sees a respite; the other activities which are ancillary to the Bembé, the samba-de-roda, capoeira and maculelê, continue). This year's Bembé honors the sixty years of activity of Mãe Lídia de Oxagian, of terreiro Ilê Axé Omâm, as a mãe-de-santo (head priestess; her image can be seen hanging in a couple of preceding photos of the Bembé).
The stage in the market square sees excellent music provided by musicians in the majority from Santo Amaro, this facet of the Bembé being organized by estimable Maurício Pessoa, music producer par excellence! (Maurício is also organizing the Brazilian music for the upcoming World Cup in South Africa.)
Santo Amaro has a famous Veloso (Caetano), but it's the non-famous Veloso there (Rodrigo, Caetano's brother) who, in his capacity as Santo Amaro's secretary of culture, is working to preserve and promote Santo Amaro's deep, wonderful, and historically important heritage. Rodrigo is the festival's executive organizer.
The Bembé has an "official" page, with information and updates on the Euterpédia Brasil, at http://www.euterpediabrasil.com/profile/BEMBEDOMERCADO13DEMAIO. 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! Corpus Christi The 10th of June. Celebrated in Pelourinho. Festa de Santo Antônio
The Festa de Santo Antônio falls officially on June 13th. But this being Bahia, it runs for the week before, in the Largo de Santo Antônio, at the far end of the bairro of Santo Antônio além do Carmo, Santo Antônio in effect being feted with beer and peanuts. The Festa de Santo Antônio is a part of the buildup to the Festa de São João. Viva! * Santo Antônio is the patron saint of matrimony, his assistance sought by young women hoping (praying) for husbands. 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!). 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)
Anniversary of the date of Bahia's independence from Portugal, which came the year after Brazil's declaration in 1822. In the morning the Caboclos (there is a cabocla too) are pulled from Lapinha through Santo Antônio além do Carmo to the Praça Municipal. In the afternoon they are pulled up Avenida 7 de Setembro to Campo Grande, accompanied by brass bands and followed by government representatives. Festa da Boa Morte
Takes place in the town of Cachoeira, Bahia (110 km from Salvador, on the Paraguaçu river), on and around 15th of August (Catholic feast day of the Assumption of Mary), under the auspices of the Irmandade da Boa Morte (Sisterhood of the Good Death). Lots of samba de roda. By the way, the "good death" is Mary's accension into Heaven without having to get there the way everybody else does (die first), assuming that's where they wind up. 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. Is it still happening? 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. Nowadays it takes place in the Praça Municipal on a huge stage. I've enjoyed myself there, more hanging out under the steps leading up and into the offices of the prefeitura (city government) -- located behind the stage -- drinking beer and talking, than out front actually watching. Huge stages aren't the venue for samba. |
Or there, as you like it...
Seaside & City
The Bahian Ethos & Zeitgeist
Congresses & Seminars
Up from Slavery
Stranger in a Strange Land
Picaresque Opulence
In the Cradle of Samba
The World's, Biggest, Party
Writer Bennet Paris
The Sacred and the Profana
Blood, Sweat, Prayers (and Sugar)
Hottest Rhythms, Coolest Tunes! SAMBA!
And others seldom thought of
Epicure for Gods & Mortals
Civilized discussion with respect to Bahia & Brazil
Cloves, Cachaça, & Stupidly Cold Beer
If the world is a stage, this is the bandstand.
Takin' it to the Streets
From Surfside Partying to Idyllic Splendor
Dance like a Baryshnikov...hit like a Kalashnikov
Heaviest Hands
Ubiquitous Deities: 1,165 sacred houses in Salvador alone
Salvador S.O.S.
Manorial, Shantified, Towering, Humbly Jumbled
Runaway Slave Villages and Relaxing Millionaires
Up the Underbelly!
A tongue like molten pewter
Mobius-Strip Transit
More than Newton's 1st law makes the world go round
Zoom out
Hedge Caveat Emptor
'Round Back of Olodumaré's Universe
Far Horizons
Accoutrements
Other People and Perspectives, in English & Português
Compromised smile?
Tropical Variance
Páginas Pessoais de Músicos Brasileiros
Personal Music Pages
By Daniel Bluementhal
Encanto de Itapoan, Seaside
