Festival of Iemanjá
2 February 2026 — May the waves carry our flowers and good wishes.
Iemanjá is a sea goddess, an orisha, in Afro-Brazilian faiths, honoured as the mother of the waters and a protector of fishermen and families. Devotion to her came to Brazil with enslaved Yoruba people and lives on in Candomblé and Umbanda. On 2 February, especially in Salvador, Bahia, thousands gather on the shore of the Rio Vermelho neighbourhood, often dressed in white and blue. They leave flowers, mirrors, combs and other gifts in boats that fishermen carry out to sea, and many whisper personal wishes. The festival follows a fixed calendar date and has no direct link to a solstice or the phases of the Moon. Our little flower boat sails along the Milky Way as a quiet symbol of the waters that protect and connect us. On the same day Brazil also holds Catholic devotions to Our Lady, and many people blend the two traditions.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver small boat made of bright dots and fine lines, like a constellation, gliding along the glowing waves of the Milky Way
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