Legendary Apparitions

Early one morning a mysterious woman appears out of the misty horizon and hovers above the ocean. Sensing the presence of the divine, the Portuguese and Tupi Guarani gather at the water’s edge and beckon her to come ashore, but their pleas go unanswered. It is only when enslaved Africans begin to dance, beat their drums and pray to what they identify as an incarnation of Iemanjá, Yoruban goddess of the sea, that the apparition floats across the waves to dry land, thus cementing her reputation as the protector of the black population. It is a legend that is celebrated across Brasil in the annual feast of the Lady of the Rosary in which Catholicism, indigenous culture and African tradition fuse in a spectacular folkloric display of colour, music and dance that is unique to Brasil. It is Sunday in the historic town of Serro and the festival’s closing ceremony is in full flow. Priestly incantations, primeval percussive symphonies, and a kaleidoscopic feathered procession, swirl and blaze in the hot blue sky in a scene that I can only liken to a kinetic futurist collage in which Umberto Boccioni’s paintings The City Rises and State of Mind merge and erupt in a volcanic explosion of sound and light.