Círio Effigies

Our Lady of Nazaré performs many miracles, and if you have a particular need you are supposed to accompany Sunday’s procession while carrying a representation of that need on your head. Need a house? Carry a small wooden house. People who are sick carry wax body parts in the hopes that they will be cured. Problem with your leg? Carry a wax leg, even if it hurts your real leg to spend eight hours pushing your way through a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people. Most body ailments are represented by a more generic head or body, so you don’t see people with leukemia carrying around wax white blood cells. Or maybe you do, but the cells are too small to be seen without a microscope.

street vendor selling wax effigies

The images have expanded into a cottage industry that makes brinquedos de miriti, brightly colored toys made out of balsa wood. I bought a little fish.