Fire: The centuries-old tradition of Reinados agonizes in silence with a death that was more than announced – Fausto Rosário
Cultural agent Fausto do Rosário argued today that Reinado, a secular tradition, “is dying in silence” and with a death that was more than announced and foresees its end, sooner or later.
“Today, January 6th, as has been the practice for more than five centuries, the few "Rênado" (King-Nado) who still remain on the island will go out onto the roads and paths, announcing the good news – the birth of the Redeemer for the salvation of our souls definitively and perennially marked by the stigma of original sin”, said Fausto do Rosário.
Divided into small groups, “the messengers” will recreate the visit of the Magi and the flight to Egypt, through litanies and prayers in Latin, archaic Portuguese and Creole and until the day before Lent, these figures will be the last protagonists of one of the oldest, perhaps the first, manifestation of popular religiosity in memory, according to the cultural agent.
The original purpose of raising funds from the wealthiest landowners that were essential for the Church seems to have been lost in time and what was once “meticulously recorded in the parish books” is now remembered only as an echo of a past community commitment.
The abandonment of the Church by failing to recognize its activity to the point of prohibiting the entry of the "Rênado" through its doors in the 1990s, by a parish priest who considered himself above everything and everyone, relegated this tradition to “complete ostracism”.
“Without any support or incentive, the 'Rênado' survive as an aberrant curiosity, practiced by a few poor souls, without any generational transfer or solution of continuity, without any attempt at preservation or registration by those who should be taking care of these specters, dismissed from any incentive other than the few coins and some foodstuffs received, cherished only by those who, over 70 years old, identify with them, stubbornly preserving the collective memory”, said the cultural agent.
According to him, nowadays, and despite lacking a generational connection or efforts at cultural preservation, the kingdoms “carry their images of the Virgin and Child in their hands, mark the rhythm of the litanies with small drums and end their prayers with the sound of a bell”.
“More than celebrating the good news, their songs resemble a requiem, a funeral dirge for the imminent disappearance of this tradition”, highlighted Fausto do Rosário, for whom without continuity and with modernity’s disdain for such simple rites, the island’s cultural identity definitively loses another page.
For many, the end of "Rênado" is a symbol of the inevitable transformation of times and paraphrasing Camões said that "times change, wills change."
For those who still hold the drum and the sacred image close to their chest, the sound of the litanies is much more than a tradition, it is a testament to the resistance of a culture that refuses to disappear without a fight.
Inforpress/end
