Yemoja

Yemoja is a spirit from the Yoruba religion. She is an Orisha and the mother of all Orishas, having given birth to the 14 Yoruba gods and goddesses. She is often syncretized with either Our Lady of Regla, or Stella Maris. Yemoja ^[1] is motherly and strongly protective, and cares deeply for all her children, comforting them and cleansing them of sorrow. She is said to be able to cure infertility in women, and cowrie shells represent her wealth. She does not easily lose her temper, but when angered she can be quite destructive and violent, as the sea in a storm.

She is often depicted as a mermaid, and is associated with the moon, ocean, and feminine mysteries. She is the protectress of women and rules the subconscious and creative endeavors. She governs everything pertaining women; childbirth, conception, parenting, child safety, love, and healing. She oversees deep secrets, ancient wisdom, the moon, salt water, sea shells, and the collective unconscious. According to myth, when her waters broke, it caused a great flood creating the oceans and the first mortal humans were created from her womb.

A participant in a Yemoja festival in Nigeria.

Name variants

• Yoruba: Yemo̩ja / Iyemo̩ja / Yemo̩nja / Iyemo̩nja
• Portuguese: Yemanjá, Iemanjá, Janaína, Mãe da Água
• Spanish: Yemayá, Yemallá, Madre del Agua
• French: La Sirène, Mère de L'Eau
• Pidgin/Creole Languages: Mami Wata

Africa

Yemoja sculpture by Abayomi Barber (1971). National Gallery of Art, Nigeria.

In Yoruba mythology, Yemo̩ja is a mother spirit; patron spirit of women, especially pregnant women; patron deity of the Ògùn river but she is also worshipped at streams, creeks, springs in addition to wells and run-offs...anywhere there is water flowing. Her name is a contraction of the Yoruba words "Iye omo eja" which means "Mother whose children are like fish." This represents the vastness of her motherhood, her fecundity, and her reign over all living things. In West Africa, Yemoja is worshipped as a high-ranking river deity, but in Brazil and Cuba she is worshipped mainly as a sea/ocean goddess. River deities in Yorubaland include Yemo̩ja, Ò̩s̩un (Oshun), Erinlè̩, O̩bà, Yewa, etc. It is Olókun that fills the role of sea deity in Yorubaland, while Yemoja is a leader of the other river deities. Since the river deity Yemoja is also a mermaid, she can visit all other bodies of water, including the sea, but her home and the realm she owns is the river, especially the Ogun River in Nigeria.

Americas

Brazil

Offerings for lemanjá in Salvador, Brazil.

Umbanda worships Yemanjá as one of the seven Orixás. She is the Queen of the Ocean, the patron spirit of the fishermen and the survivors of shipwrecks, the feminine principle of creation, and the spirit of moonlight. She is syncretized with Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes (Our Lady of the Seafaring).

In Salvador, Bahia, Iemanjá is celebrated by Candomblé on the very same day consecrated by the Catholic Church to Our Lady of Seafaring (Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes).^[2][3] Every February 2, thousands of people line up at dawn to leave their offerings at her shrine in Rio Vermelho. Gifts for Iemanjá usually include flowers and objects of female vanity (perfume, jewelry, combs, lipsticks, mirrors). These are gathered in large baskets and taken out to the sea by local fishermen. Afterwards a massive street party ensues.^[4]

Iemanjá is also celebrated every December 8 in Salvador, Bahia. The Festa da Conceição da Praia (Feast to Our Lady of Conception of the church at the beach) is a city holiday dedicated to the Catholic saint and also to Iemanjá. Another feast occurs on this day in the Pedra Furada, Monte Serrat in Salvador, Bahia, called the Gift to Iemanjá, when fishermen celebrate their devotion to the Queen of the Ocean.

On New Year's Eve in Rio de Janeiro, millions of cariocas, of all religions, dressed in white gather on Copacabana beach to greet the New Year, watch fireworks, and throw white flowers and other offerings into the sea for the goddess in the hopes that she will grant them their requests for the coming year. Some send their gifts to lemanjá in wooden toy boats. Paintings of lemanjá are sold in Rio shops, next to paintings of Jesus and other Catholic saints. They portray her as a woman rising out of the sea. Small offerings of flowers and floating candles are left in the sea on many nights at Copacabana.

In São Paulo State, Iemanjá is celebrated in the two first weekends of December on the shores of Praia Grande city. During these days many vehicles garnished with Iemanjá icons and colors (white and blue) roam from the São Paulo mountains to the sea littoral, some of them traveling hundreds of miles. Thousands of people rally near Iemanjá's statue in Praia Grande beach.

In Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul State, on February 2, the image of Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes is carried to the port of Pelotas. Before the closing of the catholic feast, the boats stop and host the Umbanda followers that carry the image of Iemanjá, in a syncretic meeting that is watched by thousand of people on the shore.^[5]

Uruguay

In Montevideo, worshippers gather on Ramirez Beach in the Parque Rodo neighborhood every February 2 to celebrate Iemanjá Day.^[6] Hundreds of thousands sit waiting for the sunset before they launch small boats with offerings into the ocean.

In 2015, the Uruguayan government estimated that 100,000 people^[7] had visited the beach for the celebrations.

Cuba

In Santería, Yemayá is the mother of all living things as well as the owner of the oceans and seas.^[8]

References