Sunday, October 09, 2005

Círio Sunday

Today was the big day, where the relic was honored with yet another procession from the Catedral da Sé to the Basílica de Nazaré. The procession started at 7 AM but was too early for me so I didn’t show up until around 10.

Our Lady of Nazaré

The procession was similar to the one on Saturday night except there were a lot more people. I heard estimates of two million floated but that seems too high and might have been a count for the entire weekend. Anyway, it doesn’t matter as Círio claims the title of Brazil’s largest religious procession without an apparent rival.

The other difference was that today some of the participants carried the wooden house, boats, and wax body parts mentioned in an earlier post. I didn’t see as many as I expected and there were more boats than anything else. Also, some of the houses were made out of Styrofoam, which I guess is a modern adaptation.

This guy was limping.



Posters calling for justice for Dorothy Stang, the murdered American nun


Another difference was that the corda was cut, which is sometimes done to protect both the people pulling it from being stampeded and the relic from toppling out of the carriage. When it is cut, people want a souvenir for what ever reason. There was a mini-mob trying to get a piece of the rope right where I was standing. I did my good deed for the day by picking up an about-to-be-smashed little girl and setting her on top of a drink cart.

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