Círio is in the air

Círio de Nazaré, Brazil’s biggest religious festival, is this coming weekend.* I’m very shaky on the details and symbolism, so I’ll refrain from posting much background except to say that the festival dates back to 1793 and has something to do with Our Lady of Nazaré, the patron saint of Pará, performing some miracle for a fisherman. People fly into Belém from all over Brazil, and more than a million people will flood the city streets on Sunday. Highlights of the festival include a procession from the docks to the the Catedral da Sé and then to the Basilica de Nazaré (about 10 blocks from my house), people engaged in a giant tug-of-rope (with Jesus?), and the slaughter of thousands upon thousands of ducks for the traditional dish of the festival, the extremely tasty pato no tucupi.

Doomed.

For Catholics in Belém, Círio is more important than Christmas. There are similarities between the two events. Lots of shops are decorated with images of the virgin of Nazaré, the guards at my apartment complex put out a little contribution box (I contributed), and people are running around in a frenzy buying things. Perhaps because of the frantic shopping or the sky-high price of duck, my laundry lady tried to charge me 50% more than usual for washing my clothes (I refused).

And, like Christmas, there is tacky commercialization, except here the religious imagery is more explicit. I took some photos of my favorite billboards around town:

Maratá coffee: strong like your faith

Círio. Faith never breaks.

(by Companhia do Vale do Rio Doce, a huge mining company)

Our Lady of Nazaré, light up (enlighten) our families.

(by Celpa, the state electric company)

*Brief background information in English, although there are some inaccuracies like the size of the procession (i.e., hundreds of thousands, not thousands).