{"id":572,"date":"2015-07-03T08:41:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T13:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/?p=572"},"modified":"2019-07-29T16:27:42","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T21:27:42","slug":"batizado-baptism-boi-da-uniao-baixado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/?p=572","title":{"rendered":"Batizado (Baptism): Boi da Uniao Baixada"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>The batizado<\/em> (baptism) of the boi<\/em>\/ox takes traditionally takes place on the eve of\u00a0June 23 with the\u00a0blessing taking place after midnight, on the turn of the night to the day of Saint John the Baptist (Sao Joao, the patron of the Bumba-meu-boi<\/em> festival).\n

\"DM4A4409_DxO\" — A new ox\u00a0awaits baptism by a Catholic priest. Although the priest is careful to note that this is not an official baptism of the Church (because he ox is not a human), he has prepared a special liturgy for the event.\u00a0 He then blesses the ox \u201cin the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.\u201d The boi on the lower left has a new skin\/couro; just above is a bare ox frame without its skin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is the heritage practice, once considered necessary before the boi<\/em> enters the street to dance.\u00a0 In less commercial times the celebration would take place in a private space or community and might last all night.\u00a0 In the more commercial, performance-oriented environment of the festival in Sao Luis, it is often abbreviated or even performed early.\u00a0 This shows\u00a0a perfunctory acknowledgement of tradition\u00a0while allowing the more commercially-oriented\u00a0groups to begin (paid) performance\u00a0before the day of Sao Joao.\u00a0 The batizado <\/em>is one of the heritage customs that has changed with the urbanization and professionalization of the *Bumba-meu-boi<\/em> performance schedule (now largely determined by the city government and commercial entities).<\/p>\n*
The batizado<\/em> of Boi Uniao da Baixado<\/em>, in the bairro<\/em> of Monte Castelo, is somewhere in between.\u00a0 This ceremony was performed before the day of Sao Joao in order to allow the group to perform that night on a municipal stage.\u00a0 However, the batizado<\/em> was performed from a specially-prepared liturgy by a priest of the Catholic Church, Padre Haroldo.\u00a0 He is sometimes known as \u201cPadre boeiro,\u201d the priest who dances with the *boi<\/em>.<\/p>\n*
In this ceremony he wears his boeiro<\/em> hat and cape over his priest\u2019s vestments.\u00a0 After the batizado<\/em> we also\u00a0saw that he wore the rest of his costume\u00a0 under the vestments, doing a quick-change in order to dance with the boi<\/em> as it entered the street. He later appeared with the group as it performed at\u00a0the city venue known as Maria Aragao.<\/p>\n
The private *batizado<\/em> is\u00a0usually attended only by members of the groups, close neighbors and friends.\u00a0 They are not advertised and are only known to a smaller circle.<\/p>\n*
In this case, we did not know the\u00a0group well, but were friends with Izaurina Nunes, a leading local proponent of cultura popular<\/em> who was instrumental in having the Bumba-meu-boi<\/em> designated as a national cultural landmark in 2011.\u00a0 She served as the madrinha<\/em> (godmother) of the boi<\/em>, just as in a official\u00a0baptism there are godparents to assure the spiritual development of the person baptized.\u00a0 Being asked to be godmother or godfather is an honor to special friends and dignitaries, and often to supportive public figures and financial contributors.<\/p>\n
The priest is careful to say that this is not a person and therefore not a real baptism in the sense of the institutional church.\u00a0 Shortly after this\u00a0official disclaimer,\u00a0he baptizes the ox in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, sprinking water on the new *boi<\/em> and the crowd.<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"DM4A4397_DxO\"$ <\/a>
The priest, Padre Haroldo (popularly known as Padre boeiro) with ox frames and members of Boi Uniao da Baixado, June 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"DM4A4452_DxO\"$ <\/a>
The packed gathering place of the group (known as a headquarters or sede) during the batizado. Just left of center is the madrinha, or godmother, of the new boi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"DM4A4534_DxO\"$ <\/a>
The newly-baptized boi is \u201cno longer a pagan,\u201d and can dance in performance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"DM4A4567_DxO\"$ <\/a>
Now in performance on the\u00a0municipal stage known as Maria Aragao, the boi is\u00a0danced by the \u201cmiolo\u201d (a local idiom meaning the \u201cinsides\u201d of the ox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"DM4A4544_DxO\"$ <\/a>
A cazumba in the Baixada tradition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"DM4A4555_DxO\"$ <\/a>
The \u201cburrinha,\u201d a small donkey that accompanies the dancers and boi.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The batizado (baptism) of the boi\/ox takes traditionally takes place on the eve of\u00a0June 23 with the\u00a0blessing taking place after midnight, on the turn of the night to the day of Saint John the Baptist (Sao Joao, the patron of the Bumba-meu-boi festival). \u00a0 This is the heritage practice, once considered necessary before the boi … Continue reading Batizado (Baptism): Boi da Uniao Baixada<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-572","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\/572","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=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2836,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/2836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}