One way to resist and to maintain the traditions originating from Africa was the religion. The black brought in the basements of the slaver their ancestral cults.

A lot of times the master tolerated the black rituals as a form of maintaining the control on the plantel (the slaves that he possessed), but it usually condemned the religion as cult and classifiedas a pagan manifestation.

The Catholic Church tried to Christianize the blacks, looking for extirpating a tradition milenar. Even so, the black resisted to the domain of the white culture maintaining their faith, and adapting their rituals and transforming their religion in a contemporary reality.

SOME ORIXÁS

Orixá messenger between the men and the gods, guardian of the door of the street and the crossroads. Only through him it is possible to invoke the orixás. Element: fire

Personality: daring and aggressive

Symbol: ogó (a stick adorned with cabaças and whelks)

Day of the week: Monday

Necklace: red and black

Clothes: red and black

Sacrifice: male goat and black rooster

Offerings: farofa with dendê( oil ), bean, inhame( a kind of root, Water ,honey and liquor

God of the war, of the fire and of the technology. In Brazil it is known as warring god. He/she knows how to work with metal and, without its protection, the work cannot be profitable.

Element: iron

Symbol: sword

Personality: impatient and obstinate

Day of the week: Tuesday

Necklace: blue-marine

Clothes: blue, dark, red or yellow green

Sacrifice: rooster and reddened male goat

Offerings: feijoada, xinxim, inhame

Goddess of the fresh water (rivers, sources and lakes). she is also goddess of the gold, of the fecundity, of the game of whelks and of the love.

Element: water

Personality: maternal and calm

Symbol: abebê (fan with mirror)

Day of the week: Saturday

Necklace: yellow gold

Clothes: yellow gold

Sacrifice: goat, chicken, pigeon

Offerings: white corn, chicken xinxim, eggs,

fish of fresh water.

Goddess of the winds and of the storms.

It is owner of the soul of the deads.

Element: fire

Personality: impulsive and unexpected

Symbol: sword and horse tail (representing the royalty)

Day of the week: Wednesday

Necklace: red or brown darkness

Clothes: red

Sacrifice: goat and chicken

Offerings: white corn, rice, bean and acarajé

God of the fire and of the thunder. He/she says the tradition that was king of Oyó, city of Nigeria. It is virile, violent and upright. It punishes the liars and it protects lawyers and juízes.

Element: fire

Personality: daring and prepotente

Symbol: double axe (oxé)

Day of the week: Wednesday

Necklace: white and red

Clothes: white and red, with brass crown

Sacrifice: rooster, duck, sheep and turtle