Vila Prudente. Today, Augusta held her first candomblé event in her new home. The ocassion was the annual party for the child orixas – the Festa de Ere. Augusta and member of the community prepared platters of sweets and packages of treats in the morning and received the guests in the afternoon. The party-goers were not intending to drink and pass the afternoon chatting. Instead, they came to witness the arrival of the young orixas and orixa messengers that would visit to enjoy the candies and toys provided for them.
Members of the community trickled in and wandered to the terrace on the third floor where they enjoyed a beautifully clear day while lunching on salad, rice, baked chicken, an the painstakingly made stew called caruru made of a sweet green vegetable called quiabo, which we started making the day before. Then, as Edete cleansed the air of the house with can of burning incense, one-by-one, we took a took baths with the fresh herbal water that Lucas and Nivaldo prepared the night before in the large mortar as they sang songs to the orixas.
Augusta, dressed in a full, shining gold skirt, a lacey light yellow and white sleeveless blouse, a delicate white wrap across her chest, a long string of beads around her neck, and a carefully-placed white headdress, then gathered the community back into the multi-purpose third floor space which served as the ritual area today, but earlier that morning served as a second kitchen, other days as Augusta’s space for consultations (where she would ‘jogar buzios’ or read shells for people… note the picture showing the table we put outside), and soon, the place where Lucas and I will sleep for the three months before our departure for the U.S.
The night before, Augusta and others also arranged the candied and flowered alter in the far corner of the multi-purpose room. Its space marked by the border of a large cloth, the altar was littered with seven bowls variously filled with tetes de nega, suckers, lollipops, bars of coco, longer (and quite phallic) bars of marshmallow, candy cones filled with caramel, and coco candies wrapped in yellow, pink, and white tissue festively tied and flared at one end. The final bowl displayed a luscious selection of tropical fruits purchased at the farmer’s market early that morning. A pot of vibrantly yellow daisies added further color and sweet smell. Littered between the bowls were the toys meant to entertain the visiting orixas (cars, balls, play money, and a very anatomically correct doll) and to aleve their thirst, small bottles of guarana (a Brazilian soda similar in taste to ginger ale). In a box to the side, waited the several candy gift bags filled with puffed corn and samplings of all of the times on the altar.
The community members were seated in a circle variously on low stands or on the floor – but all oriented toward Augusta. I sat in the far back in order to leave myself space to exit and tend to the allergy attacks that are haunting me these days (and thus my sickly looking appearance in the pictures). Sitting at the side of the altar, Augusta led the community in 16 orations and songs – praising each of the orixas. When we came to the song for Ere, the child orixa, the queen of the child orixas, Sereia Dourada incorporated Augusta. She rose to give greetings and distribute handfuls of food and candy to each of the mortal visitors. By the time she arrived in front of her, one of the female visitors had too been incorporated by a messenger orixa. I later learned that this spirit had incorporated her many times before. The messenger happily ate all the candies offered, but suddenly departed leaving the woman choking on a mouthful of sweets. Next, Nelsa who I had always imagined had been incorporated before, indeed had her first incorporation. Her orixa messenger entered her body and stayed for the remaining one-half hour of the event. He, a very, very young spirit, peacefully played with a car and ball, rarely interacting with the people, yet accepting the candies offered her by many different visitors.
Sereia Dourada, after having gleefully toyed with the inordinately large lollipop and her share of sweets, made rounds to give blessings. The first incorporated visitor, her husband, and their daughter offered Sereia Dourada a marine-charm bracelet. After putting it on top of the large white cake and pouring guarana over it to see the patterns it created, Sereia Dourada interpreted the situation and needs of the family... much as Augusta normally does with her buzios. She then gave similar consultations for a couple other people while the community got up and mingled in the small space. After all the greetings and distributions had been made and Sereia Dourada distributed pieces of the late-arriving apple-filled, whip-cream-frosted cake, she took to her side the messenger spirit incorporated in Nelsa and announced that it was time for them to depart. She draped a scarf over their heads while they shivered and coughed as the orixas departed.
Each one of the women who had been incorporated, made comments after the ritual about how they ate a lot while incorporated and/or had stomachaches as a result, but otherwise they suffered no other side effects. I asked Nelsa about this, though I was quite curious about her other feelings and wanted to ask more. I learned that night that during at least a few prior rituals, she had felt vibrations of these orixas and so had been preparing for incorporation for some time. Clearly, this would have to be a significant day for her. Indeed, I will have to ask her about it the next time I see her.
The timing of this party happened to coincide well with Halloween and the Catholic All Saints Day, yet in part by chance. Traditionally, the party is held once a year, during the month of October. It well could have been weeks ago. Syncretism or the swapping of symbols between religions most notably between the Catholic Church and indigenous religions, remains a part of Candomblé and other Afro-Brazilian religions. Though Candomblé practitioners intend not to call the orixas by Catholic saint names as other Afro-brazilian religions do, there is a liberal appreciation of Christian prayers and psalms in Candomblé rituals and homes. The party was closed, for example, with the Lord’s Prayer.
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