Brava: Flag festivities culminate with the passage of the flag of São Pedro and the boat to the mast

The three flag festivals on the island of Brava, with the tradition of the Mast, Santo António, São João and São Pedro, culminated today with the passing of the flag to the next party-goer and the boat to the mast of São Pedro.

São Pedro is the last of the flag festivals and this year the flag that was in the church was rescued by a group of young people who decided not to let the tradition die, justifying that the flag belongs to the people and not to the church.

Around 17:00, the revelers, accompanied by tambourines and coladeiras, followed the ritual to Cutelo, where the pole is dressed in order to fulfill the last rituals of tradition, and after the boat, a Brave woman named Malu Santos took the flag to celebrate next year.

For the 2024 party girl, what led her to take up the flag is her faith and keep the tradition going, now waiting for the whole of society to unite to celebrate this flag that she considers to be everyone's.

As for the 2023 party-goers, the feeling today is of “duty fulfilled”, because, as justified by Nilton Gonçalves, one of the members of the initiative, they rescued the flag in mid-June, with a short time to prepare the party, but even so, they made an appeal and the people united so that everything was done as tradition dictates.

He took the opportunity to thank everyone and showed willingness to support next year's party girl, emphasizing that all are children of the flag and whenever they are called they respond promptly, because the intention is never to leave or bury the flag, that is, leave it in the church not to be celebrated.

Even with a smaller audience than the other two flag festivals, both in the eucharistic celebration and in the rituals at the mast, São Pedro and São Paulo, as the parish priest had already said in an interview with Inforpress at the end of the mass, are popular saints, and the mast that was made in Cutelo, which is the traditional one, was not the only one, as some masts were dressed, although of a smaller scale, in private homes in different locations who have a certain devotion to these saints, and other people just they made a soup or cachupa to distribute to the people.