“Os cerimoniais público(-privados) e as solenidades da Semana Santa de Braga (2019)” [The public(-privates) ceremonials and the solemnities of Holy Week in Braga] by Rui Manoel Gomes Ferreira | PhD Thesis

Abstract: “The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ constitute perhaps the most publicized narrative in the history of mankind. Grounding for artistic achievements and devotional reverie, this account has become not only the basis of a spiritual proposal, but one of the most emotive manifestations that Christianity provides to the human community. Seat of an ecclesiastical landlord that lasted for almost seven centuries, the city of Braga would be the opportune context for the development of this imaginary one. Starting in particular from individual initiatives, such as the paradigmatic case of Archbishop D. Frei Agostinho de Jesus, the Passion of Christ was rooted in sociability from Braga, particularly from the corporations inspired by that evocation. Among the manifestations acquired particular importance the set of practices developed fundamentally during the Lenten time and the Easter triduum. Allegedly designated as Holy Week’s solemnities, it is affirmed as the most relevant moment in the annual calendar of the city of Braga. The immediate result of the unequivocal social-historical implantation of Christianity in the successive communitarian periods, this religious phenomenon, now also tourist and economic, is reflected through a revealing ethos of a significant diversity of experiences where not only a Judeo-Christian worldliness, but also a very specific definition of sociability and the very foundation on which it builds the community. Its most relevant manifestations are the processions, recreations of the Christian public ceremonial, which reveal themselves as crucial moments. However, other relevant ceremonies subsist, especially those that are part of the so-called rite from Braga or the practices associated with the paschal celebration. With a time course that justifies a dedicated approach, these ceremonials reveal an essence that clearly goes beyond the limits of belief and is today within a clear cultural scope. The recent preoccupation with the themes related to intangible cultural heritage, as well as the lack of relevant studies on Holy Week in Braga, led to our rationalization process. The current reading of these social phenomena is an imperative of the context of patrimonialization in which we are inserted.”

 

This PhD thesis, by Rui Manoel Gomes Ferreira and supervised by Miguel Sopas Bandeira & Moisés Martins, was defended in 2019 as part of the Doctorate in Cultural Studies at the University of Minho. It is available, in Portuguese and in open access, at RepositóriUM.

 

Photo: Luis Ascenso Photography (CC-BY 2.0)

ANO

2019

AUTORES

Rui Manoel Gomes Ferreira

EDITORES

Miguel Sopas Bandeira & Moisés Martins