AS CIDADES AMAZÔNICAS E A DEVOÇÃO A SÃO BENEDITO

Abstract

This article is an ethnographic record of the festivities of São Benedito in three different Amazonian cities that celebrate the Black Saint. It should be noted that some quotations were part of a doctoral thesis on the same matter, in the capital of Amazonas, where it is also celebrated, as well as in the cities of Bragança in Pará, Alcântara in Maranhão and District of Freguesia do Andirá – Barreirinha, in Amazonas. The choice of these four cities is due to the fact that the data about the festival intertwine, compare and differ in various rites, because the festivals of saints and even the Catholic Church are full of symbolisms. In the fieldwork in each of the cities visited during the period of the festival, the stages of the rituals, such as preparations, cooking, dancing, singing and the history of the festival itself were observed, as well as the relations of kinship, affinities and neighborliness during the trajectory of the celebrations. We conclude, by reflecting, that religious festivals in the country, especially those of black Catholic saints and considered popular, they are still mainly celebrated by black communities, as the devotees have feelings of belonging, respect for ancestry and especially of identification with São Benedito , which is the representative of humility, penance and traditions of faith since the colonial period.

Keywords: São Benedito; Feasts of Saint; Black Saint, Celebration; Devotion; Tradition.