What is Umbanda in Brazil?

Umbanda (Portuguese pronunciation: [ũˈbɐ̃dɐ]) is a syncretic Brazilian religion that blends African traditions with Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and Indigenous American beliefs.

What is a Orixa?

Orixas are ancestors who have been deified. These orixas can be from recent history, perhaps only one hundred years old, or they may be over a thousand years old. Orixas are a link between the spiritual world and the world of humans. Voduns and inkices are spirit gods, essentially the same as orixas.

What are the deities in Candomblé called?

These deities are called orixas. (They can also be called voduns and inkices.) Candomblé practitioners believe that every person has their own individual orixa which controls his or her destiny and acts as a protector. Music and dance are important parts of Candomblé ceremonies.

What is a Terreiro?

Terreiros consists of a series of rooms, some off-limits to non-initiates. They contain an altar to the deities, a space to perform ceremonies, and accommodation for the priests or priestesses. The floor is deemed sacred, consecrated to the tutelary orixá of the house.

Is voodoo practiced in Brazil?

Chief entry port for black slaves for more than 300 years, Bahia, beneath its Portuguese veneer, remains the most African city in Brazil. It now swarms with a population of 1.2 million, 70 percent black or mulatto, and it is the center of a vibrant Afro‐Brazilian cult called Candomblé, a form of voodoo.

What is orixa in Portuguese?

Are Orishas gods?

Orisha (also given as Orisa and Orishas) are supernatural entities usually referred to as deities in the Yoruba religion of West Africa, though they are actually emanations or avatars of the supreme being Olodumare. Their number is usually given as 400 + 1 as a kind of shorthand for “without number” or innumerable.

Which orisha is the most powerful?

Ṣàngó is viewed as the most powerful and feared of the orisha pantheon. He casts a “thunderstone” to earth, which creates thunder and lightning, to anyone who offends him. Worshippers in Yorubaland in Nigeria do not eat cowpea because they believe that the wrath of the god of iron would descend on them.