{"id":1749,"date":"2016-01-13T02:47:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T08:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/?p=1749"},"modified":"2019-07-29T16:03:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T21:03:47","slug":"festa-dos-reis-maranhao-festival-of-the-kings-january-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/?p=1749","title":{"rendered":"Festa dos Reis (Maranh\u00e3o), Festival of the Kings (January 2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>The Festival of Kings<\/strong> (Festa dos Reis<\/em>) is the celebration at the conclusion of what are called the festas natalinas<\/em>, the many celebrations held during the period of Christmas on the Catholic calendar.\n

In Maranh\u00e3o\u00a0 these celebrations may once have been promoted and organized by the institutional Church \u2014 now they are spread throughout the region in many forms.\u00a0 The community celebrations are part of what is known as \u201cpopular Catholicism,\u201d practices that may originally have originated in he Church but now carried on by communities themselves.\u00a0 These two festas<\/em> in the photos below are community celebrations organized by community groups.\u00a0 There were no clergy present at either of the festas<\/em> shown here.<\/p>\n

This church below is\u00a0 simple community building but not the center for a parish or official Church sanction.<\/p>\n

Like many such \u201cchurches\u201d throughout Maranh\u00e3o, they have evolved their own forms of celebration that are now part of popular \u2014 rather than official \u2014 culture.\u00a0 A feature of popular Catholicism is that the culture producers are the \u201cpeople,\u201d and not any formal institution.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0903_DxO\" — Community church, Maracan\u00e1 (Maranh\u00e3o)\u00a0 Prominent on the altar are Saint Anthony, the Virgin Mary, and the black saint, Benedict (Sao Bento, as he is widely revered in Maranhao).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
An earlier post describes festivals of S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo<\/em> and the Festa do Divino<\/em> in two communities in the interior of Maranh\u00e3o.\u00a0 In both cases the celebration, ritual, and liturgy were conducted by the community and held in a \u201cchurch\u201d that is an informal community building.<\/p>\n
This celebration is based on the nativity story of the visit of the three kings to the new-born Jesus.\u00a0 A centerpiece is the nativity scene which, in Maranhao lis likely to contain animals and entities that reflect the communities\u2019 spiritual practices (Catholic or other).<\/p>\n
*There is a somewhat similar observance of \u201cThree Kings\u2019 Day\u201d in New Orleans, and many communities celebrate the 12th night of Christmas with a ceremony and burning of trees.<\/p>\n*
This is, more of less, the last celebration of Christmas.\u00a0 There is one more event called the \u201cquemada palinha<\/em>\u201d in which the straw of the manger (the cr\u00e9che, pres\u00e9pio<\/em>) is burned.\u00a0 Many celebrations use an herb or shrub called *murto,\u00a0<\/em>which when burned gives off a sweet, pungent odor like a powerful incense.<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_0859_DxO\"$ <\/a>
From the altar \u2014 celebrants at a Festa dos Reis<\/em>. The singers in green are a community group that carries the liturgy and celebration.\u00a0 They have been doing this for years and are an integral part of he festival\u2019s organization.\u00a0 Their faith is carried in this type of community action, outside the sanction or direction of clergy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_1058_DxO\"$ <\/a>
It is a community honor for children and young people to be chosen to represent the kings. In this tradition of \u201cpopular Catholicism\u201d there are also queens and other characters represented.\u00a0 These young people seem a bit uneasy with the attention, the heat, and the long liturgy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_0937_DxO\"$ <\/a>
The kings and queens are presented at the cr\u00e9che\/nativity scene (pres\u00e9pio<\/em>, in Portuguese).\u00a0 The young participants for the following year are chosen on the day after this event.\u00a0 This gives the families a year to prepare these elaborate costumes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_1132_DxO\"$ <\/a>
The singing and ritual in this community are led by this group of singers each year.\u00a0 Their name refers to \u201cAlecrim,\u201d which means the herb rosemary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_1074_DxO\"$ <\/a>
The young people are treated like royalty, though the pride of their parents seems more pronounced than the children\u2019s excitement. The Christmas festivals come in January,which in Maranh\u00e3o has daytime temperatures in the 90\u2019s.\u00a0 After the day has cooled a bit, the temperatures are still in the 80\u2019s here. Here in the enclosed space of the celebration, parents primp and fan the royalty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_1102_DxO\"$ <\/a>
Many celebrations in cultura popular<\/em> in Maranh\u00e3o use a band \u2014 this one led by a sax man. After the liturgy they played jazz and dance music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_1024_DxO\"$ <\/a>
This is another Festa dos Reis <\/em>near Maracan\u00e1.\u00a0 It was held in a party room room of a commercial bar.\u00a0 In the main area here was a large audience listening to live band playing popular music. This more serene festival shows the costumes of the kings and queens\u00a0 The mountains of elaborate calories heaped behind them are color-matched to the costumes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Popular culture in Maranh\u00e3o, as elsewhere, is a mix of heritage culture \u2014 such as that celebrated here \u2014 and mass media entertainment.\u00a0 This was only one activity gong on at this commercial bar\/entertainment center.<\/p>\n
Tourist and ethnographic accounts sometimes give the impression that everyone is there; however, in the hybrid world of contemporary Maranhao culture, many are next door drinking and dancing.<\/p>\n
As researchers we were at the *Festa dos Reis<\/em>.\u00a0 We have seen people drink and dance before, and didn\u2019t need to document that.<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_1165_DxO\"$ <\/a>
Often, one of the implicit notions in descriptions of popular celebrations is that they engage the whole community. Actually the number of faithful in the *Festa dos Reis<\/em> is a only a fraction of the community, many of whose members are busy elsewhere.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"*The Festival of Kings (Festa dos Reis) is the celebration at the conclusion of what are called the festas natalinas, the many celebrations held during the period of Christmas on the Catholic calendar. In Maranh\u00e3o\u00a0 these celebrations may once have been promoted and organized by the institutional Church \u2014 now they are spread throughout the … Continue reading Festa dos Reis (Maranh\u00e3o), Festival of the Kings (January 2016)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-folk-culture-and-spiritual-practice-in-maranhao-brazil"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1749"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1779,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions\/1779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}