Representações da cultura popular na Folia de Reis em Arraias

Abstract

The present work has as its theme the Folia de Reis, more specifically the Folia de Reis of Arraias, which is released every year by Dona Domingas Santana, from the Path of Light Spiritist Center, Master Zé Pilintra. Initially, the objective was to make a diagnosis of issues related to music, relating them to music teaching in schools. However, the consequences of the covid-19 epidemic, with the interruption of activities, including the tour of Folia for two years, forced a redirection of the object to privilege historical issues and the representation and cultural importance of Folia within the city of Arraias. In this sense, important testimonies of participants were collected, as well as the testimony of the main figure of this festivity, Ms. Domingas, in addition to obtaining several video and photographic records, as well as historical records, kindly provided by Ms. Domingas. In Brazil, the Folia arrives brought by the Portuguese colonizers, with a more religious character than entertainment. Under various denominations such as Reisados, Ternos or Cantorias and becomes one of the most traditional and rich parties in the country. The research is also part of a project linked to a large project of cataloging and patrimony of the festivities and popular knowledge of the region, developed from the project Music: teaching, ethnographies, human and social development, which seeks to perceive, register and bring such manifestations not only for academic studies, but also proposing and enabling these activities to be carried out in regular schools in the municipality and in the region. The methodological paradigm used was the qualitative/interpretative one, which can present multiple possibilities of interpretation and which values the role of the researcher as a builder of knowledge. In the specific case, there was the use of the interpretive case study, which seeks to understand how the case studied is from the point of view of the participants, in this case the members of Folia, for this the researcher is part of the group and acts with freedom of observation. The project fulfilled the following objectives initially proposed: it explored the history and meanings of the Folia de Reis in Arraias; analyzed and highlighted the relevance of this festivity to the local culture.