Festas, cortejos, procissões: tradição e modernidade no congado belo-horizontino

Abstract

The “congado” is a manifestation related to popular Catholicism, of African influences, which can be found in many places in Brazil. Its ritual is centered in the worship of Our Lady of Rosário and saints of the christian hagiology universe. Its beginning has origin in the period of slavery of Africans and their transportation to the New World. The “Congado” was an important way to live and express religious faith for those who had their freedom taken. In Belo Horizonte, the “congado groups” are formed by families and are established under a genealogical ballast that creates an identity and social cohesion devoting their lives to the religious practice that was giving to them by their ancestors. In this essay, we will try to analyze the social relations that the many “congadeiros” groups have been doing since they are involved in an urban reality with all its challenges. Nevertheless, the diversity of its composition and reference to genealogy, its strong attachment to tradition (even with a clear insertion in modern sociable conditions) seams to characterize the strengthening of these fraternal groups in the face of the plural diversities that are part of the urban life in big cities. It is in this context that this essay aims to dive into, trying to disclose the possible new arrangements that, perhaps, such groups have been developing since the beginning until today, here in the city that’s the capital of Minas Gerais.