The Tranquility of Trancoso, Brazil (Part Two)

Hard to believe I only spent four days in Trancoso. Days seem so long when you’re traveling, especially when your days are spent exploring a charming hippie-chic town, living in a jungle paradise, and horseback riding on the beach.

I also happened to be in town during one of Trancoso’s most festive seasons. Apparently, Trancoso is a popular destination for New Year’s Eve, but the two festivals I experienced are quite well-known too, and they happen to fall on consecutive days.

Yemanjá Festival

As Trancoso is in the Bahia region of Brazil, I found many cultural similarities here as in Salvador. It’s easy to find the delicious acarajé being sold on streetcarts, and the practice of Candomblé is quite popular, both of which I described to you in My First Week In Brazil.

The Yemanjá festival took place on February 2. Yemanjá is one of several gods worshipped in the Candomblé religion, this one the goddess of the ocean. The festival is apparently huge in Salvador, where I had just left from, but it seemed to be quite a big deal here in Trancoso as well.

Everyone was dressed in white, as is customary for all Candomblé rituals and celebrations; some wore tints of turquoise to represent Yemanjá herself. There was a drum and dancing procession trailing a statue of the goddess that worked its way through the streets all day long, with fireworks marking each time it stopped to sing a particular song or dance a particular dance.

I happened upon the procession by accident as I was leaving a grocery store, and ended up dancing alongside it for hours until it reached the Quadrado! There were no English-speaking people around to explain the intricacies of the procession, and my host Fernando was busy tending to his horses, so I just carried on blindly and took in the music and the energy.




Once at the Quadrado, there was a blessing of the statue and some more drums and dancing. And shortly after, everyone headed down to the beach to offer Yemanjá gift baskets in the shape of small canoes, sending them off to sea. I missed this part of the festival unfortunately, but I reckon it bears some similarities to the Loi Krathong festival in Thailand or Ganesth Chaturthi in India.

Festa de São Brás

As if one festival wasn’t enough for the short time I spent in Trancoso, the Yemanjá festival was followed immediately by the Festa de São Brás (entirely by coincidence, as the two festivals have nothing to do with each other). Hours after the Yemanjá gift offerings at sea, the community gathered at the São João church – at 4am! – where stood two masts, each representing a saint.

At that hour, I was surely getting my beauty sleep in the jungle under a mosquito net. But as I understand it, the village got together to remove one of the masts – the one representing São Brás – completely out of the ground, to be replaced with a new mast later in the day (to the left, notice the red mast is still upright, but the blue one has been removed and its replacement is lying on the ground waiting to be raised).

A local Brazilian would later tell me that the removal of the old mast is supposedly the most exciting event. Although, in the same breath, he admitted to me he’d been on LSD for the entire festival. Heh.

Anyway, after the mast is removed, the village takes a break from all its festivaling, and resumes again in the Quadrado around mid-day for a free lunch of traditional meat, beans and rice. There’s live music, children running around the grass, free Cachaça (a rum-like spirit) for the adults, and incredibly happy, drunk people.







Yet another procession ensues, this one led by some Catholic priests and a statue of São Brás.






Then comes time to replace the mast of São Brás, in what looks like a game of tug-of-war, as the people come together to hoist it up. As you can see in this video below, it was a pretty exciting moment!



All day long, the people were singing the same song over and over again, and it completely hypnotized me. No one’s been able to tell me what the words are or what the song means, but the song was stuck in my head for at least a week after I left Trancoso. I can only piece together what sounds like “mama ayyyy, mama ahhhh” and a bunch of other gibberish that my brain has made up. I so wanna sing along every time I hear it!


It was interesting – if not really strange – to see a community gather to celebrate the goddess of a religion that is characterized by what many consider to be voodoo on one day; then to see the exact same community celebrating a Christian saint the next. Neither celebration seemed overly religious or spiritual, but both involved a fair amount of music, dancing and drinking. And at the end of the day, they were basically lively gatherings of happy people. No complaints from me!

When I think about Trancoso, all I can think about is how much I wish I’d have spent more time there. I love a good festival and to experience a culture in celebratory times. But I have a feeling Trancoso is the kind of place I could fall in love with on any ordinary day.

2 Comments

  1. P.

    awesome post! :)

    these chants are called mantras and also parodies, because they often come with a touch of humor. they go like this:

    Ó Senhor São Brás
    Ó chegou o dia
    Ó Senhor São Brás
    Ó chegou o dia
    Viemos festejar com toda alegria
    Viola de madeira
    Cabo de numeração chorei
    Quem me deu essa viola não me dá outra mais não,
    chorei fui andando, caminhando e chorando Por causa dos seus conselhos chorarei
    Toda vez que eu me alembrava chorava

    Oh mamauê mamaua tá me chamando mamãe pra vadiar

    Ó Senhor São Brás
    Ó chegou o dia Viemos
    Festejar com toda alegria

    Ei meu limoeiro tira a rama do caminho
    Ei meu limoeiro
    tira a rama do caminho
    Seu espinho me espinhou,
    meu amor me carinhou
    Madrugada eu vou

    Oh Saint Brás
    The day is here
    Oh Saint Brás
    The day is here
    We’re going to celebrate with all of our joy

    Wooden guitar
    Number cable, i cried
    The one who gave me this guitar won’t give me another one
    I cried and start walking, and walking and crying
    Because of your advices, I will cry
    Every time I remembered, I cried

    Oh mamma-hey mamma-ah
    Mom is calling me to party

    Oh mamma-hey mamma-ah
    Mom is calling me to party

    Oh Saint Brás
    The day is here
    Oh Saint Brás
    The day is here
    We’re going to celebrate with all of our joy

    Hey my lemon tree, take the leaf out of the way
    Hey my lemon tree, take the leaf out of the way
    Your thorn has thorned me,
    My love gave me love
    I’m going through the night

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