Agrarian Cults

Indo-European mythologies from the past, from the time when humans had just become sedentary, having to rely in new ways for survival, particularly the agrarian ones, function just like archetypes, awaking memories, possibly pertaining to mankind in general, but acquiring some cultural /geographical particularities.

Ritual gifts to the Goddess Mother, c 2000 bC
These answers, common to enormous areas, due to the expansion of the Western World, still function as unifying units, breaking out more recent national differences.

Mesopotamia Forest God, Terracota, 2000 bC
The festivities of the Summer Solstice, for example, portray the ancestral belief in the sacredness of the vegetation, based in unconscious memories which turnout more evident in the rural spaces.

Arnold Böcklin,. The Sacred Wood, 1882, Kunstmuseum Basileia
These mythologies are reproduced, specially on rural spaces where the extension of this quality of woods’ sacredness is extended to the town spaces, enacted by mediation of Diane (and also Dionysius), Gods of vegetation.


Diane Sacrifice, marble, Villazzano
The ritual, taking place during the Summer Solstice, is traditionally represented by the nicest girl in town, acting in the role of Diane.


Queen’s parade, Irland
The act is performed in a kind of procession, or parade, with the Queen in a throne, mimicking the ancient European ceremony of the transfer of the sacredness of the woods to the profane ambience of the town, with the intention of purifying the urban space.


Sanjoaninas, Cortejo da “Rainha”, Terceira, 2004
Green garlands decorated with flowers, invade the town symbolising the resulting blesses.


Barbara Irwin Collection, Califórnia, 1900s
Through them and with them, the dancers execute intricate steps, before an immense audience.


Sanjoaninas 2004, Terceira, Açores

Summer Solstice dance, Suécia, Anders Zorn, 1897
Bonfires pretend to restore Sun's energy, which will decline immediately after the Solstice night. Magic functions under a climate of complicity.


Ritual Bonfires from the Solstice, Finland
The Bull, one of the symbols of Dionysius, also as a God of the vegetation, takes part in numerous and diversified events, within the festivities.


Nicolas Poussin, The adoration of the Golden Claf, National Gallery, London, 1633

Sacred Bull, Egipt

Bull fights, Terceira
Sanjoaninas ritual, just like several other similar events, taking place in the middle of the Atlantic, so far away from its origin, seem to respond to the need of a liaison to the continent and to the past, specially to a past so relevant for the survival task.


Children bull fights, Terceira, 2004
Due to the powerful, centrifugal effect, common to the agrarian mythologies, the circular notion of time, characteristic of this way of thinking, and of the rural environment, by imposing a repetitive nature to the events, simultaneously brings with it the comfortable notion of its return.

Scenes in the rural life of the Azores
This feeling contrasts with the linear vision, generally dominating the urban life, which tends to cause a certain anxiety towards the future (unforeseeable), sometimes bringing about depressive feelings.


As the stage for several other ingrained mythological ceremonies, following the dates of the Equinoxes and the Solstices, which manage to impose their order in the town, Angra is periodically in accord with their magic, being reanimated with old rituals coming out of the cosmic calendar.

For example, in the Autumn Equinox, its historic centre is crossed by multitudes of Pilgrims from the East and South parts of the Island (as well as from the town), aiming to Serreta, a small village 20 km. west of Angra, just on the same date and circumstances of the celebration of the Eleusian Mysteries, in a partially Christianised version of the Greek event.

Hestia e Demeter
Ceremonies from the Cult of the Dead (November 1st, as in the Celtic way) integrated within the Winter Solstice, fill the town with groups of children knocking at doors, asking the “souls’ bread”, which many people still produce for this occasion, sharing it with everybody.

Phineus and the Harpias, sent by Demeter to find Persephone
The Lent and the Passion Week, preceding the Spring Equinox, are enriched with other symbolic events framed by the purifying agrarian rituals of the preparation for the sacred period of the sowing, as it happens with the Carnival, which in Terceira Island (including Angra) takes a particular aspect, by stressing the social analysis and the public blaming of the “sinners”, in satiric plays where the irony achieves its high.


Carnival “Bailinhos”, Terceira
This occasion is characterised by four days of constant runabout, looking for the 50 or 60 new theatrical plays, created each year (in the villages, as well as in Angra), spreading and commenting the critics, which may be directed to the Government, to the Church, to particulars, etc., but in which, the irony is predominant.
On the other side, there are the “Maios”, surprising us in a different way



In each morning of the 1st of May, the entire Terceira Island awakes for a scenery of hundreds of dummies, mocking-up human beings, at verandas and windows, as a deterrent for bad influences of the spirits, leaving the Earth (on the April 30th). But among the most imposing of the celebrations of rural influence, affecting the entire archipelago, and building its cultural identity, are the Primitiae, or firstlings, represented in the Christian version as the Holly Spirit festivities.


These particular festivities, over crossing its natural time and entering into the Summer Solstice, have established themselves as an identitary mark of the Azxorean people, being represented also during the Sanjoaninas, in a communal supper, where the tables are placed on the streets, sitting thousands of commensals for a “free lunch”.

Holy Spirit “Sopas”, Terceira, 2004


September, 2004
Antonieta Costa


Related Bibliography
Frazer, James George, “Le Cycle du Rameau d’Or”, in Le Dieu qui Meurt, Paris, 1931
Gennep, Arnold van, Manuel de Folklore Français Contemporain, Paris, 1947
Lévy-Strauss, Claude, Myth and Meaning, Schocken Books, New York, 1945/1995.