Children's food: the sweets (of) umbanda's ibejadas

Abstract: The ibejadas are child entities that, along with caboclos, pretos-velhos, exus, and pombagiras, inhabit the pantheon of Umbanda. In a gira of an ibejada, candies are food, Child’s food. In sweets, flavor merges with quality, the noun with the adjective - the sweets feed and qualify the child entities and their rituals. In this article we will see how suspiros, cocadas, fruits, and cakes make up a banquet that is meticulously prepared to honor the Children, entities that are characterized by joy, purity, and sweetness. As we will see, in the giras de ibejada, sweetness is not only a quality of those entities. The sweetness of the ibejadas has smell, taste, sounds, colors, they melt our hands, invade our noses and mouths; and to feel all this sweetness is to feel the Children.

Keywords: umbanda; ibejada; candy; synesthesia.