Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
CÍRIO DE NAZARÉ
Círio de Nazaré
climaxes on the second Sunday of October, but for weeks beforehand
the city is preparing itself for what in Belém is by far the most important time of year, easily
outstripping secular rituals like Carnaval. The centre is swept and cleaned, houses and
buildings on the image's route (much of the centre of town) are decorated and festooned
with bunting and posters in the saint's yellow and white colours, and hotels fill up while
anticipation builds. On the
Friday night
before the climax hundreds of thousands of people
accompany a cortege with the image borne aloft on a flower-covered
palanque
down Avenida
Nazaré from the Basílica, through Praça da República to a chapel where it spends the night. It
is quite a spectacle; hundreds of thousands of people quietly and in perfect order walking
along with the image, residents of buildings applauding and throwing flowers as it passes,
with choirs stationed at improvised stages en route serenading it with hymns.
Saturday morning
is, in some ways, the visual highlight of the entire period. The image
is put onto a decorated boat for the
procissão fluvial
and sailed around the riverfront,
accompanied by dozens of boats full of devotees, so the sailors and riverboats so central to the
life of the city get a chance to show their devotion too. This is best seen from the battlements
of the fort or the walkway next to it, but get there no later than 10am or the places will be
taken. The next part of the festivities is secular; around 1pm a riotous procession dominated by
young people, with bands and drummers, wends its way through the Praça da Sé, down Rua
Siqueira Mendes, and ends up at the Largo do Carmo, where groups set up on stage and
entertain the multitude with excellent regional music until the evening.
Sunday morning
is the climax, when the decorated
palanque
makes its way back through
the centre of town and up Avenida Nazaré to the Basílica. The crowd tops a million, but is very
non-intimidating: the atmosphere is saturated with devotion and everyone is very orderly - at
least away from the cortege. The self-flagellating side of Catholicism is much in evidence: the
image is protected on its travels by a thick anchor rope snaking around the cortege, and those
with sins to pay for or favours to ask help carry the rope, where the squeeze of bodies is
intense - at the end of the day the rope is stained red with blood from the hands of devotees.
The especially devout follow the cortege on their hands and knees, with equally bloodstained
results after several kilometres of crawling on asphalt. The image is usually back at the Basílica
by noon, when families unite for the
Paraense
equivalent of a Thanksgiving or Christmas
dinner, with turkey being substituted with
pato no tucupí
, duck in
tucupí
sauce, and
maniçoba
,
a fatty, smoky-tasting stew of pork and manioc leaves, which takes days to prepare. All in all,
the largest and most spectacular religious festival in Brazil is worth going to some trouble to
catch - but be sure to book your hotel well in advance.
Basílica de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré
Praça Justo Chermont • Mon-Sat 7am-8pm, Sun 6.30-11am & 3-9pm • Free •
T
91 4009 8400,
W
basilicadenazare.com.br
Created in 1908, and supposedly modelled on St Peter's in Rome, the
Basílica de Nossa
Senhora de Nazaré
rates - internally at least - as one of the most beautiful churches in
South America. It somehow manages to be ornate and simple at the same time, its
cruciform structure bearing a fine wooden ceiling and attractive Moorish designs that
decorate the sixteen main arches. Most importantly, however, this is home to one of the
most revered images in Brazil, the small
Nossa Senhora de Nazaré
statue. There is the usual
cluster of legends about the image's miraculous properties, and for
Paraenses
it is something
like a combination of patron saint, first port of spiritual help when trouble strikes and
symbol of the city. Wherever they are, someone from Belém will do whatever they can to
be back in the city in October for Brazil's most spectacular religious festival, the
Círio de
Nazaré
(see box above), when the image is paraded around in front of enormous crowds.
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi
Av Governador Magalhães Barata 376 • Tues-Sun 9am-5pm • R$2 •
T
91 3182 3240,
W
museu.goeldi.ru
Opened in 1895, the institute for scientic research, or
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi
,
is more of a botanical garden and a zoo than a museum these days. The gardens are
