«Procession on the water»

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  Report from Salvador Monteiro
  Photos by Gervásio Batista

  This is how the year starts in Salvador: lots of Sun and yellow and bluw and red and violet. And above all music. Like this the Day of the Lord of the Waters is celebrated and every first day of the year his image is passing through bay of All the Saints during the peak of summer.

  In the first hours of the morning the bells and round chimes wake up sleepyheads announcing the new stage. The ones that will march through the peninsula, accompanying the saint, will be on the streets with the first Sun.

  The procession will depart from the market ramp. The illuminated torsos of the black sailors pass by the colorful sailboats that clutter at the port. Round mulatto girls, dressed in blue and pink in the hair, perceive the wishes of the Sunday's marines, and shake their hips to the rhythms of a native band. The old sailors of the Customs House clothed to the task wait the galiot of the Lord of the Sailors, who slept the night at the basilica at the foot of the hill. The guitars are tuned, slowly, the pandeiros vibrate and come to light, and, from far away a voice mysteriously sings, hurtfully, the history of the sailor who was lost in the waves, once.

  "Weap on the sea, weap on the sea, sailor"

  The first vessels with flags move slowly and come to the centre of the bay and wait, first, turned south, in the direction of the Patron point, a headland where the small church of S. Antônio da Barra is situated.

  At the ramp the Good Jesus of the Sailors appears on the shoulders of the faithful. Behind him the image of the Mother, very tearful, with the tunic of gold and blue. With their passing, the mystics kneel and say confusing prayers and ask for things.

  Then the procession starts on the water, where you see hundreds of sailboats with music and flags, moving around the barroque and sacred galiot.

  From one of the blue sailboats comes a voice of a man, very sad because he didn't hear the music on the beach.

  Photo 1 (with M Bugalho): The berimbau is heared from distance

  Photo 2: The image of Our Lady opens the procession

  Photo 3: Blacks and mulattas - the daugthers of Janaína.

  Photo 4: The boats have festive decorations.

  Photo 5 (with M Bugalho and M Waldemar): The capoeira of Mestre Valdemar is always there.

  Photo 6: Tight sandals don't make samba more difficult.

  Photo 7: The fishermen are the Iemanjá's sailors.

  Photo 8: The old sailor and his present.

  Photo 9: The mulatta twists herself in the samba circle..

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  Photo 1 (with M Bugalho and M Waldemar (red square)): The capoeira is present at all the feasts, mainly at the one of the Conceição da Praia and at the Sailors' Procession. It's the black bahians favourite entertainment...

  "I left a good samba on the sand
  Ê ê ê left on the sand."

  The procession goes through the first stage and turns north, in the direction of the Boa Viagem chruch, far away, on the sea shore. It's there the Saint lives and it's there the people wait.

  The peak of day is very sunny - it's the hottest day of the year - and the procession arrives. There are thousands of people around the church, the illuminated square, where small barracks are put up and sold, in the past years, genuine native dishes. Unfortunately the civilization is a fact and in the barracks lyrically called "The girls' flower" and "Rosa Maria" entered, this year, well-travelled conserves. It's true we meet Maria de S. Pedro, uncompromising, full of traditional culinary convictions, and some real bahianas. This has somewhat neutralized the invasion. But the tradition is more or less perturbed.

  There at the beach the Saint disembarks. An uncontrollable crowd drove it to the churchyard, improvising songs, and inside, in the church, it's being guarded. Therefore, outside, on the square, all in music, sweat and capoeira and berimbau.

  "I stepped on the dry leaf
  it made chuá... chuá..."

  A fabulous mulatta twists herself and around her body the men sing:

  "Who doesn't have hair
  doesn't wear braids
  who doesn't have love in Bahia
  ê ê ê doesn't send remembrance".

  Photo 2: On the Market ramp the procession starts

  Photo 3: Acarajé and abará for the faithful to the sea...