

Honors and offerings are to be pledged to this idol. Therefore, to cast away all bad luck, the parents of the dead twin would commission a babalawo with the carving of an Ibeji sculpture.

Nowadays, if one of the twins dies, this is considered a sign of misfortune for the family or the community to which the deceased belonged. However, this wasn’t always the case, as in ancient times, Yoruba people used to think that twins were born with preternatural powers, and therefore they could eventually become a threat to their communities. Usually called Ibeji, in honor of the twin gods from the Yoruba pantheon, twins tend to be regarded as a symbol of good fortune.

Through this act, the Bahianas re-enact the washing of this temple done by African slaves, in the colonial times, during the preparations for the celebration of Epiphany Day. Once there, the Bahianas, a group of Brazilian priestesses wearing only white (the color of Obatala, the Yoruba god of purity) start to wash the stairs of the church. Celebrated on the second Thursday of January, in the city of Salvador (the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia), this festivity gathers hundreds of Camdomblé practitioners and tourists from different parts of the world.ĭuring the first part of this ceremony, attendants gather at the Church of Conceição da Praia, to participate in an 8-kilometer procession that ends when the crowd arrives at the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim. The washing of the Bonfim stairs is a ritual of purification practiced within the Brazilian Candomblé celebration that holds the same name. The Washing of the Bonfim Stairs (Ritual) Those who had completed this initiation ceremony are known as aleyos. The last element is the one that transmits the ashé to the necklace.Īt the last part of the initiation ceremony, the body of the person being initiated is purified before receiving his or her collars. Then, the necklace is washed with aromatic essences, herbal infusions, and the blood of at least one sacrificial animal.

Once the beads are selected, the priest proceeds to assemble them using a cotton thread or a nylon. The making of these collars consists of the collecting of the beads, which are chosen according to the colors associated with each of the aforementioned deities. Since these necklaces are recipients of ashé (the divine energy that resides in all things, according to the Yoruba religion), only babalawos priests can assemble and deliver the elekes. Receiving the Necklaces, or elekes, is among the basic initiation ceremonies from the Lukumí religion, a Yoruba-based faith from Cuba. In both cases, this ceremony lasts for three days. In Cuba, the act of receiving the hand of Orula is called ‘Awofaka’, if the person that goes through the initiation is a man, and ‘Ikofa’, if it’s a woman. Once this ceremony is done, the initiate can start wearing the green and yellow bead bracelet, which is a symbol of the protection that Orula keeps over the Yoruba practitioners. Throughout this process, the initiation candidate also learns who his/her tutelary orisha is.
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See Also The Best VPN Server Countries to Connect Through "Unfair and irresponsible" claim? Pinoy vlogger sa South Korea, inimbestigahan ang "Hermes snub" kay Sharon Cuneta English Pronunciation Rules and How to Learn Them Modes of Communication: Types, Meaning and Examples | Leverage Eduĭuring this ceremony, a priest uses divination to reveal to the person that is being initiated what his or her destiny on Earth is the notion that everyone is born with a set of goals, sometimes even carried from past lives, is one of the fundamental beliefs from this religion.
