THE SENSE OF THE FESTIVITIES: A RETROSPECTIVE LOOK AT THE SUMMER CYCLE IN BAHIA, TWENTY YEARS LATER

Abstract

The text presented here takes a retrospective look at the festivities in Bahia, twenty years after starting the research. The data have been traced back to that period, not least because they were collected then. The intention is to deal with the festive cycle to show that after that time the elements that have nourished its movement have not changed, the tradition remains. If, on the one hand, there is a call back to tradition, on the other, there is recognition of its dynamics even as time goes by and the spaces where they take place change with it, even if many of their major characters are no longer there. How many of those women still actively participate in each one of the events brought about by the cycle? Very few. But her heirs, those who have taken over their legacy, carry the movement of the festivities on and celebrate them at each cycle. Thus, when revisiting the research that originated the text, it was possible to look at the party twenty years later with the eyes of someone who indeed was there and saw it go by. Its movement rekindles the desire to juxtapose it with what we have today.