Objetos rituais em finados

Abstract

In this visual essay the aim is to underline the fundamental role of ritual objects in the holiday of the Dead. The photographs were obtained from fieldwork conducted in 2017 at the Cristo Rei Municipal Cemetery in Toledo, Paraná. Focused objects are mainly flowers and candles that have a direct bearing on the care of the dead, be it adornment, be it intercession, or memory, and can be viewed at times of caring for the grave and prayers on the cruise.

As I walked through the cemetery chasing the objects, I saw and heard many negotiations and doubts from the mourners regarding the arrangement of flowers and candles. For this reason, I bet that paying more attention to the presence and use of ritual objects can lead us to understand certain minimum collective consensuses that are built in the territory of the cemetery that although it is a plural public space has a marked Christian logic. The central points of consensus revolve around the ritual stages and make those who go to the necropolis on holiday dialogue in the same language of meaning. Objects construct and reinforce relationships between the living in the dead.

The arrangement of the objects in the tombs and the cruise show great care and attention on the part of the mourners. Flowers play a key role in decorating the tombs with their color and their forms, and the mourners spend many minutes - sometimes hours - minutely studying the position and disposition to deposit them. The candles, however, refer to the aspect of intercession. In them we must emphasize the essentiality of the flame so much that the mourners make a great engineering to keep them burning. Some tombs already have support for the placement of the candles. In other cases, pieces of brick, ceramics, cardboard and wood serve as shelter. "Enlighten the path," "help placate the anguish," "help in the transition to the other world." These were some of the justifications I heard from the mourners for the use of the candle in the tombs of their relatives.

The fire and the collective sails are on the cruise. The flames formed by countless of them propagate with greater intensity as extension of the community rite. In the cruise the fire and the prayers together build the flames and smoke in which the mourners insert and actively intercede in a great common effort. Other Christian objects are deposited on the cruise and remain between the smoke and the flames being heated and burned.

More than accessories, ritual objects are central to the dynamics and success of the ritual. After all, it is from them that the mourners organize themselves and it is to deposit them that they go to the necropolis every year in the "Day of the Dead". Through ritual objects it is that the day of the dead are built.