Brazilians honor Yemanja with beach offerings

Brazilians honor Yemanja with beach offerings
Brazilians honor Yemanja with beach offerings

Clad in white attire and bearing flower offerings, Brazilians congregated at Arpoador beach in Rio de Janeiro to honor Yemanja, an Afro-Brazilian sea goddess.

Followers of the Candomble and Umbanda religions dress in white to celebrate Yemanja and many left flower offerings near a sand sculpture depicting the sea goddess.

Yemanja believer Brandao, who attended the ceremony, said the faithful asked Yemanja to " free us from all evilness" and to "take away all the negative energy."

Yemanja is one of the deities of the Yoruba religion and has become prominent among Afro-American cultures. The tradition was brought over to Brazil by African enslaved people hundreds of years ago.

Thousands of worshippers clad in white robes spilled onto Arpoador beach in Rio de Janeiro to pay homage to Yemanja, the Afro-Brazilian sea goddess.

Devotees waded into the sea to the sound of drums and rhythmic clapping and offered up colorful bouquets to the goddess who is celebrated annually on Feb. 2.

“We bring offerings to the sea asking for her to bring us protection, prosperity and that she take away with the sea everything that is bad, all the negativity,” said Beatriz Toledo, a 26-year-old teacher.

“She is a mother, she looks after us, so she’s going to want everything that is positive and good for us,” Toledo added.

That somber reality contrasts with the joy that was on display.

“It’s very exciting because we understand that people need this moment of reflection, a moment of inner peace, of connecting with nature, because the deity is nothing more than pure nature,” said 68-year-old teacher Maria de Fátima Santos.

Yemanja is a central deity in the Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomble and Umbanda. Practitioners of these faiths have traditionally been and continue to be the target of discrimination and sometimes of religious hate crimes in Brazil.