The climate is one of concentration and reverence in Pátio do Terço, central region of Recife.

​

It's Monday. Day of Souls in candomblé. Day to remember the origins and revere the ancestors.

​

The celebration is special, because it is also Carnival.

​

8 p.m. and the alfaias start to sound. It seems that the beat is inside us. The sound takes over the small square. The long, swirling dresses twirl non-stop. The bright and colorful clothes are there to remember the African people.

​

At midnight the drums are silent. An act of respect in memory of those who paraded silently through these same streets in the past, because they did not have the right to celebrate their origins.

​

As if in a trance, each participant in the event plunges into silence.

​

After a brief ceremony, the boxes and implements begin again. The hypnotic sound of the drums, the main instrument of the Xangô´s orchestra, involves human creatures and the Orixás. A new kind of trance takes hold of people.

​​

The party vibrates into the night.