December 9, 2022
11:12
Marcela Leiros – Amazon Agency
MANAUS – The date of December 8, in Amazonas, is marked by celebrations of the devotees of Our Lady of Conception, patron saint of the state, and the children of Oxum, orixá worshiped by religions of African matrix. The entities are syncretised and, despite having different histories both for the Catholic Church and for Umbanda and Candomblé, respectively, they represent love and fertility.
Our Lady of the Conception, or Immaculate Conception, is a dogma of the Catholic Church that talks about the conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary. In Amazonas, the date, which is a state holiday, is also a day of celebration for the family of Maria da Conceição Fortes da Silva. She was born on 8 December 1932 and received her name in honour of the saint.
Devotion has made Maria da Conceição go every year to the procession in honour of the saint, but a fall has made it impossible for the elderly woman to celebrate for the past two years. “It’s sad, but I take communion every Sunday,” she tells AMAZON AGENCY.
The love for the Immaculate Conception did not remain only in the name and was also passed on to the family, as César Gomes, one of the nine children of Maria da Conceição, tells.
“If we were catechists of Confirmation, Christian Initiation, Liturgy group, if we have always been involved in the church, it is because mum took us. It is a grace for us to continue this tradition of being in the Catholic Church, of participating in pastoral movements”, he explains.
‘Goddess of Love´
In the capital of Amazonas, the children of Oxum celebrate, this Thursday, 8, the 18th Balaio de Oxum to worship the ancestral female deity who represents the fresh waters, the domain of rivers and waterfalls, gold and fertility. The celebration has the theme “The Meeting of the Waters is the natural altar of God that unites brothers and sisters of various faiths in defence of the preservation of life”.
The director of the cultural festival and daughter of Oxum, Nochê Agonjai Flor de Navê, told AMAZON AGENCY that the deity, second wife of Xangô, represents wisdom and feminine power. Besides, according to her, she is seen as the goddess of gold, of the game of conch and of the river Oxum, or Osun, which is in the African continent.
“Oxum is love itself, the sweet waters of the Amazon, the lakes, the waterfalls and all the fecundity and fertility of our nature submerged in our waters. That is why we, people of religions of African origin, love this goddess, for her great love. Without Oxum there is no water, without water there is no life”, she declares.
Syncretism
The priest of the Afro-Brazilian cult, James Rios, explains that syncretism arose during the slavery period, when Afro-descendants could not freely worship their deities.
“People, because of syncretism, put Our Lady of Conception nother saint, and say that represents Oxum, but it is just a question at the time that black people were slaves, they could not worship the orixá side, the candomblé, and then they took an image and said that they were worshipping that image of the Catholic Church, of the saint, so that their employers would accept, because they did not accept what they called witchcraft and macumba”, he explains.
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