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Exhibition ‘Cortejo das Águas’ celebrates the tradition of river pilgrimages starting Tuesday (7)

The exhibition brings together replicas of different types of boats that highlight the diversity of Pará's cultural identity

By Amanda Engelke (SECULT)
02/10/2025 10h53
The Museum of Sacred Art (MAS) is located in the building of the Church and School of Santo Alexandre, in the Feliz Lusitânia Complex, in Belém

The Museum of Sacred Art (MAS) will host the exhibition “Cortejo das Águas” starting next Tuesday (7). The exhibition celebrates the culture of Pará's river pilgrimages and presents to the public the tradition of handicrafts made from miriti, a fiber extracted from the Amazonian buritizeiro palm tree.

The public will be able to appreciate replicas of regional boats made from miriti, primarily shaped by the hands of artisans from the municipality of Abaetetuba, in the Lower Tocantins. The works will be on display for a month in the museum's Fidanza gallery, with visits until November 5 of this year.

The exhibition opens on the eve of the Círio de Nazaré festivities, one of the most important traditions for Pará's culture and one of the largest religious celebrations in the country. The month of October in Belém is the time of year when miriti toys, as they are known, color the places and come to life in a great variety of shapes and sizes, representing other symbols such as objects, animals, and even people. In the streets, it is not difficult to find pilgrims accompanying the processions carrying representations of their promises and miracles made of miriti.

Tickets for the “Cortejo das Águas” exhibition cost R$ 4 for the general public, with exemptions for children up to 12 years old and seniors over 60. The MAS follows the standard schedule of museums, with free entry for all audiences on Tuesdays and Sundays, as established by the State Department of Culture (Secult). This rule applies to the spaces that are part of the Integrated System of Museums and Memorials (SIMM).

The replicas of the boats on display belong to the collection of the Círio Museum and include a variety of shapes and types of boats produced in different regions of the state. The director of MAS, Emanuel Franco, explains that the exhibition celebrates the tradition of river pilgrimages, which marks the period of Círio in Belém and occurs throughout the year in other municipalities in Pará.

“What we propose is to emphasize these river pilgrimages, which are typical of our region and of Círio, but which do not only occur during this period, because there are other municipalities that also have river pilgrimages at other times,” explains the museum's spokesperson.

Emanuel Franco notes that looking at the rivers was a deliberate choice, intended to remind people of the role they play in the culture and traditions of the people of Pará. “We need to value our culture in various instances, and these are ways to show this vastness, because looking at the river now is also a form of appreciation,” says Franco. On the panels where the miriti boats will be displayed, there will also be representations of the rivers that cross the state territory.

“When the public enters the exhibition, they will first be surprised by the collection, which is a significant collection in the context of miriti objects, this historical and cultural aspect that the Círio Museum possesses. And then, these little miriti boats will show various shapes, ranging from the largest to the smallest, so this will give a sense of cultural diversity within the state,” says the museum director about his expectations for the new exhibition.

Service
Location: Museum of Sacred Art | Fidanza Gallery
Period: October 7 to November 5, 2025
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM
Theme: Cortejo das Águas
Realization: Museum of Sacred Art / Círio Museum / Integrated System of Museums / SECULT / Government of the State of Pará.

Text by Maycon Marte / ASCOM Secult