Toiim, camarada e casamenteiro! Manifestação do pau da bandeira de Santo Antônio em Barbalha, aspectos históricos: Falas e relatos

Abstract

The festivities carried out by the Catholic church were the first social events in the colonial period of Brazil, gathering together people of distinct social classes, mixing different cultures and ethnicities. Currently, in Brazil, the Catholic festivities move great quantities of people when they occur. Besides being tourist attractions, the religious celebrations in the country are also immaterial patrimony and are inserted in that of the culture of “celebrating” of the Brazilian. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the festivities of Saint Antonio, the patron saint of Barbalha, in Ceará, highlighting the uniqueness of the structure of the event, such as the sacred and profane aspects imbued in the festive daily life, which insert this festivity in the configuration of popular culture. On the way, Saint Antonio became a symbol, celebrated as a matchmaker, among other attributes given to him. And today this symbol is present in various manifestations of popular Catholicism in Brazil, as in Barbalha. The festival of Saint Antonio in Barbalha as the greatest cultural expression of the municipality, has acquired great visibility, concentrating the greater part of the cultural policies and investments of the sector and gaining notability for religious tourism, which helps transform the place into a space aimed at increasing the economy for the population of the whole region. The festival of the patron saint in Barbalha has, in its festive structure, ritual designs which remit us to the essential image of the festival, emblematically highlighting the ritual sacrifice of the tree, such as its choice, the cutting, the procession and the hoisting of the flag of the patron saint, the folklore groups and the tourist attractions. However, thanks to the particularities and the stories of these festivities, an ethnography was carried out, resulting from participant observation and many conversations and reports with the dwellers of the city and with the organizers of the event. The development of this paper had as methodology of field research ethnographic work and the use of photography.