Real and cosmological danger in the tours (“giros”) of folia de reis

Resumen

Amidst the conflict zones of the cities of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between December and January, groups of devotees move to perform their ritual practices, walking, singing, and bringing the good news of the birth of Jesus to their faithful hosts, it is the “Folia de Reis”. This work aims to demonstrate the articulations and tactics used by the revelers to circulate through the marginalized areas in the peripheries of the Metropolitan Region of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Such devotion ends up associating the notion of Folia de Reis and danger, not limited to a physical danger, but to a cosmological danger. The notion of sacred mission left by the Three Kings enables us to think about the myth in practice, that is, the revelry is the annunciation of the good news, it is the mission of announcing that Jesus was born in a dangerous region.