October 6, 2021

10:10

Rômulo D’Castro – from Cenarium

“I was prepared by the Our Lady of Nazareth to endure the sadness of losing Magid”, this is the account of a mother who had her son murdered. Magid Mauad França was 22 years old when he was killed in Altamira, southwest Pará. Málaque, the young man’s mother, has always been very devoted to Our Lady of Nazareth, patron saint of Pará. Her faith has grown stronger since the tragedy that ended her son’s life. “Since Magid’s death, during the whole year, I light candles asking for strength and justice”, she says with a choked voice and tears in her eyes.

The faith that helps Málaque is the same that moves millions of people from Pará that starting this Tuesday, 5, will follow another Círio de Nazaré. Considered one of the largest religious events in the country, according to the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (Iphan), since 1793, the Cirio was celebrated without interruption, attracting large crowds to the streets of Belém. Last year, when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak, however, the in-person demonstrations were suspended and the people of Pará followed a different kind of celebration, at home, without the heat of the crowd and far from the official image of the Saint.

In 2021, the board decided to maintain protocols against the pandemic by shortening the route of the Saint to the Basilica, built exactly where the image was found, in 1909. Even without being able to follow the Cirio the way she has always known it, lawyer Fátima Couto, who this year decided not to go to the celebrations in person, maintains her faith. “At this time when there can be no crowds, we are going to live another Círio at home, praying with the family”. The poster, one of the symbols of the event in 2021, makes reference to the pandemic and to peace.

Larisse Caripuna, from Alenquer, in the west of the state of Pará, has been living in Rio de Janeiro for five years. Even before the pandemic she started to follow the Círio from afar, but with the same devotion and customs. “It is like a Christmas for us. I, even living far away, follow all the rituals, eating the foods that we eat [in the Círio], attending masses. Even being far away, I can participate”, she says.

Promises

The people who pay their promises in the Círio are the purest representation of devotion to the Saint. Sabrina Monteiro cries as she recounts her first encounter with the patron saint. “Who is a son of Our Lady is not an orphan. Every time I’m in front of the image, I feel very loved, carried by her”, declares the self-employed woman who mobilized herself so that Santarém, the town where she lives, would have her ‘private Cirio’, in order to grace those who can’t afford to go to Belém. “I mobilized myself so that people here in Santarem could have the same experience that I had in Belém. I really wanted my brothers and sisters in Santarém to feel the same way”, adds Sabrina, who is also the coordinator of the Visiting Pilgrim Image of Nazareth.

The Círio de Nazaré 2021 officially began on Tuesday with a mass in the Basilica. The restrictions because of the pandemic will not allow processions. The faithful will be able to follow the event in a limited number of vehicles or in churches with reduced capacity. The recommendation is that everyone wear a mask and hand sanitizer to reduce the risk of infection by the new coronavirus. Those who are not in Belém can follow the event remotely, through the Círio’s channel on YouTube and Facebook page. TV Nazaré and TV Cultura do Pará will dedicate part of their programming to programs and transmissions of the event.

Schedule 2021

10/05: Solemn Opening Mass in the Sanctuary Basilica, followed by a musical concert in the sanctuary square (18h);

10/07: Solemn Mass in the Basilica Shrine for the presentation of the 2021 Shroud (6pm);

10/08: Transfer of the Pilgrim MTA to Ananindeua, in a Sedan Car or Firemen’s Car, with the route limited to major roads (Alm. Barroso, BR-316 highway, Mário Covas highway, Dom Vicente Zico Avenue, Independência Avenue, etc., at 8am);

9/10: Descent of the Original Image from the Gloria (12 noon), Mass of the Carriage at Gentil High School (6pm), Live of the Decoration of the Carriage (7:30pm), Transfer of the Pilgrim Image to the Cathedral in a Fire Engine (time to be determined);

10/10: Solemn Mass at the Cathedral (7:00 a.m.) and the transfer of the Pilgrim MTA from the Cathedral to the Basilica in a fire truck, with a descent at the corner of Generalissimo Deodoro Avenue (time to be determined).

The Saint and the Círio

The first records about Our Lady of Nazareth are from 1653, when the Jesuits started the devotion to the patron saint of Pará in Vigia de Nazareth, Pará. The Círio, as we know it today, came about in 1793. On September 8 of that year, the then captain-general of Rio Negro e Grão-Pará, Francisco de Souza Coutinho, who was cured of an illness thanks to the Saint’s intervention, held a large mass with procession. From 5 to 10 thousand people took to the streets, kicking off the biggest popular Catholic festival on the planet. According to the official website of the Círio, before the pandemic, when there were no restrictions, the event gathered more than two million faithful, filling the entire route taken by the image.

Among the symbols, the rope

One of the most significant symbols of the Círio de Nazaré began to be part of the festival in 1885, during a big flood that flooded the Ver-O-Peso market. The horses carrying the image of the saint got stuck and a merchant lent a rope to pull the cradle.

The use of the rope, nowadays used to prevent the cradle from being overturned by the thousands of faithful that follow the transfer to the Basilica of Nazaré, was interrupted for four years after polemics with the Catholic Church clergy, between 1926 and 1930. Made of sisal (a resistant vine from Central America), the rope measures 400 meters long and, at the end of the event, is divided among the faithful who help carry it.

The Círio in flavors

It’s hard to talk about the Círio de Nazaré without getting your mouth watering because of the party’s typical flavors. Shrimp vatapá, maniçoba and the famous duck in tucupi. These delicacies, however, arose outside the religious context. Sidiana Macedo, a doctor in History from the University of Pará, went deep into her research and discovered that the duck in tucupi, for example, was prepared by Indians who cooked the bird directly in tucupi and ate it with flour and tucupi. The technique of roasting the duck, something common nowadays, is, let’s say, recent. The dish was incorporated into the Círio around 1920.

The maniçoba is much older. Doctor Sidiana Macedo’s research points to records from the 16th century, when the dish was only boiled manioc and served as a side dish for fish… with pepper, of course. According to the researcher, even though maniçoba is the face of Para’s cuisine, we can’t say that we own the dish. The spice was already prepared in Bahia, in the same period as here.