The House of Life

The House of Life

The House of life was a film that was released in 1989 that takes us on a journey through the different facets of the Candomble Religion in Bahia, Brazil. Candomble is very historic to the Brazilian people. The Candomble religion originated in Bahia, Brazil and it is based off of African traditions and rituals. It started when the three priestesses of Candomble were brought to Brazil as slaves in 1830 and together founded the first Candomble place of worship in Bahia. This place was called Engenho Venio. From that compound was born the hundreds of other places of worship in the state. The names of these three women were Iya Deta, Iya Kala and Iya Nasso. These women took a trip to Ketu as well, to learn how to practice the rituals the right way and this evolved into the Candomble we known of today. The movie took us on a tour of the town of Bahia. It showed us the song, dance, food of the people that represent the religion. The people in the town were having a celebration and the song called “Eljibo”. The song mentions Bahia as being the “Shining City” and the “Fluorescent City”.
One of the main features of the religion is the possession of people through Orishas. Orishas are religious deities that represent various human characteristics. It is said that and orisha follows a person from birth. It is possible for one to visit a spirit medium and they are able to tell you which orisha is following you. In the movie, this action was shown through the ceremony where the women danced around in the Orisha’s possession. The ceremonies are dedicated to a specific orisha and the head spirit medium leads the prayer and the ceremony. The force of the orisha being present in your body has the Ashe or the energy to heal someone else. This makes orishas very powerful. The dances of the Bahian people are very similar to each other in the respect that they mimic the spiritual dances of orisha possession. This represents the fact that Candomble is a large part of the way of...

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