Umbanda Topics

• Religion
• Rio
• Brasil
• Macumba

Related Images

Source

del.icio.us Tags

• religion
• nation
• wikipedia
• brazil
• research
• congo
• afro-brazilian
• knowledge
• umbanda
• music
• brasileira
• brasil
• brazilian
• history
• culture
• musica

Umbanda, Umbanda

Since then, Umbanda has spread across mainly southern Brazil and even to foreign countries like Uruguay and Argentina.

Some of these newer streams, such as Umbanda d'Angola and Umbanda Jej , have a body of rituals, ceremonies and philosophies that makes them closer to other African-Brazilian religions such as Candombl , Jurema and Catimb . The Umbanda Esotrica is heavily influenced by Oriental, esoteric and occultism philosophies.

However, some Umbanda branches have another interpretation of Exu closer to the original African belief: they believe that he is just a troublemaker spirit that needs to be appeased with material offerings specially when someone starts a new enterprise.

Most often, the leader's own house was used as a place for religious meetings. The rituals were performed in the backyard. Sometimes, a tent was pitched to protect the meeting from rain. Today, the Umbanda religious buildings are still called Terreiro (backyard) or Tenda (tent). When the religion flourished, buildings were specially constructed for ritual use.

Larger Umbanda houses often are laid out in a fashion similar to a humble Catholic church. Even when the Tenda or Terreiro is specially built to be used in Umbanda rituals, a separated part is used as the home of the leader and his or her family. The areas for residence and rituals are close enough to be considered a single unit.

As the Terreiros de Umbanda are loosely united by the Umbanda federations, there is not a strong adherence to a single code of rite, ceremonies and creeds.

Another recent branch, called Umbanda Esotrica , is heavily influenced by Eastern philosophies. The older Terreiros de Umbanda, those established before 1940, have not integrated these new trends and still practice the original rites and ceremonies in a simpler way, specially dedicating themselves to charity works, as preached by Zlio de Moraes and his group.

Atabaques (Conga drums) and chanting play a central role in some Umbanda congregations, but are almost non-existent in others. The ceremonies may include offers to the spirits comprising fruits, cheap wine, farofa, cachaa, popcorn, cigarettes, hard cider and other types of food or beverages. Each Orix or spirit receives a proper offering, and initiation rites that range from the simple to complex.

Alves; Umbanda Crist e Brasileira; 1985; apud Beraba In 1970 Zlio de Moraes told his own version of the events to Ronaldo Linares, today chairman of the Federao Umbandista do Grande ABC (Umbandist Federation of the ABC Region, near So Paulo city). He told that the spirit introduced himself as a Brazilian caboclo (half-Indian peasant) and was contested in the sance by a kardecist psychic who said that he could see "the remains of a priest garments over him". The caboclo then explained: "You are seeing the remains of a previous existence. I was a priest, my name was Gabriel Malagrida, I was charged of witchcraft and sacrificed in the Inquisition bonfire for having prophesied the earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1755. But, in my last physical existence, God allowed the privilege of being born as a Brazilian Indian". When asked about his name, the spirit answered: "If a name is necessary, call me the Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas (Half-Indian Peasant of the Seven Crossroads), because for me there is no closed path. I come bringing the Umbanda, a religion that will harmonize the families and will last until the End of the Centuries." Due to these events, in the 1970s, November 15 was chosen as the day of Umbanda inauguration.

This kardecist Spiritism side of Umbanda is called Umbanda Branca (White Umbanda). The name does not refer to white people, but white witchcraft, opposing the Umbanda cult to the Quimbanda (black witchcraft) of traditional African rites (Macumba).

The Centro Esprita Nossa Senhora da Piedade , the first Umbanda's Terreiro keeps in its name the kardecist Spiritism reference ( Centro Esprita - Spiritism Center) and also honor a Catholic saint ( Nossa Senhora da Piedade - Our Lady of Piety).

The anthropologist merson Giumbelli remember that when Umbanda was consolidated around the 1930s, many religions also appeared and were reinforced with the same nationalist appeal. Giumbelli cites the cases of kardecist Spiritism with the 1938 release fo the book " Brasil, Corao do Mundo, Ptria do Evangelho " ("Brazil, Heart of the World, Fatherland of the Gospel") by the renowned psychic Chico Xavier, and the development of the Santo Daime religion in the Acre State.

He was a great soccer back player known by the nickname Ja, that played with the Corinthians team from 1932 to 1937 and with the Brazil's National Team in 1938 World Cup in France. Ja was also a pai-de-santo (father-of-saint), a kind of psychic and minister of Umbanda cults, the precursor of Umbanda religion in So Paulo city and one of the first organizers in the 1950s of the Iemanj feast in the So Paulo State beaches. Ja was illegally imprisoned, beaten, tortured and publicly humiliated by the police because of his religious activities. Some Umbanda leaders call him the great martyr of their religion.

However, the Umbanda cults were still looked with suspicion by the Police Departments that demanded a compulsory registration of the Terreiros . Only in 1964, this obligation was released and just a civil registration in a public notary is required.

In the 1950s, positions inverted: 1,025 organizations declared themselves as Umbanda Terreiros , 845 as Spiritism Centers and only one Candombl Terreiro . The apex was during the 1970s, with 7,627 Umbanda Terreiros , 856 Candombl Terreiros and 202 Spiritism Centers.

Police repression decreased, the followers soared, but the Catholic Church opposition increased. An intense religious campaign against the Umbanda cults was conducted in the pulpits and the press. Umbanda received criticism from the Catholic Church, which disagreed with the worship of spirits and the comparison that many Umbandistas made between Catholica Saints and Orixs (African gods) . Despite the criticism, even today, many Umbanda members also claim to be devout Catholics as well . After the Vatican Council II (1962-65), the Catholic Church sought an ecumenical or tolerant relation even with the African-Brazilian religions.

From the 1960s, many songs about Umbanda and the other Afro-Brazilian religions became popular. Among the notable Brazilian composers who treated the subject, Tom Jobim, Toquinho, Vincius de Moraes, Geraldo Vandr and Clara Nunes are the most widely known. In the 1970s poet Vincius de Moraes married his last wife, Gesse, in an Umbandista ceremony witnessed by many prominent figures of Brazilian culture and politics. Although largely accepted as part of Brazilian culture, at this time, most scholars considered Candombl the pure and authentic religion, and despised Umbanda as just a kitsch eclectic cult.

The American anthropologist Diana Brown made a field research in a Rio de Janeiros favela (shantytown) in 1966. Originally, she believed that the Umbanda was a religion of poor black people. Her study, "Umbanda - Politics of an Urban Religious Movement", published in 1974, demonstrated that Umbanda, despite its strong presence in poor neighborhoods, was a religion created and dominated by the white middle class . The spread of Umbanda in the middle class during the 1970s allured the participation even of descendants of immigrants from countries distant from African traditions. So, one can find descendants of Italian, Syrian-Lebanese and Japanese immigrants attending rites in the Terreiros de Umbanda, or even as Umbanda religious leaders (pai-de-santo or me-de-santo).

Source: Wikipedia > Umbanda