{"id":"BERNARDO2015-001","label":"São Domingos berra-boi: God does not sleep","people_or_site":"Encomendação das almas rezadores of São Domingos, Catalão","country_current":"Brazil","historic_region":"São Domingos I, Catalão, Goiás","macroregion":"South America / Brazil","local_name":"berra-boi","source_term":"berra-boi","source_language":"Portuguese","object_description":"A thin little board, bored through and tied to a cord.","function_summary":"Sounded with the matraca outside sleeping houses after midnight in the Lenten encomendação das almas, waking families to pray for their dead and, it was said, driving off evil spirits.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"bernardo2015_sao_domingos_catalao_berra_boi","source_type":"academic_thesis","source_url":"https://files.cercomp.ufg.br/weby/up/570/o/Disserta%C3%A7%C3%A3o_JOZIMAR.pdf","page_or_plate":"pp. 14, 111–113","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Centre of the author's mapped study area, São Domingos I, c. 30 km NE of Catalão between BR-050 and GO-210 (Mapa 1, p. 14); the rite moved from house to house.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"After midnight, when São Domingos was asleep, the rezadores came. Maize grains rattled onto the roof; outside, the berra-boi roared and the matraca clattered, and the singers called: “Alert, alert, sinner, God does not sleep.” Inside, the woken family answered with an Our Father and a Hail Mary for the soul of a dead father or uncle, named at their door. The din was meant to rouse the sleepers and to drive evil spirits away. One woman remembered simply that it was frightening. An old rezador remembered a band that set out ten strong and, six nights later, had more than fifty walking behind it.","pull_quote":"acorda e[le]s cum berra-boi, é, matraca","pull_quote_translation":"you wake them with the berra-boi, yes, and the matraca","pull_quote_cite":"Narrator N3M79, in Jozimar Luciovanio Bernardo, Dimensão mágico-religiosa da palavra (UFG, 2015), p. 112","term_gloss":"berra-boi: 'ox-bellow', the Brazilian name for the bullroarer. matraca: a wooden clapper or rattle used in Holy Week. rezadores: the prayer-singers.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["death_rebirth"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Jozimar Luciovanio Bernardo, Dimensão mágico-religiosa da palavra em textos orais sobre o catolicismo popular na comunidade São Domingos, Catalão-GO (Universidade Federal de Goiás, 2015), pp. 111–113","url":"https://files.cercomp.ufg.br/weby/up/570/o/Disserta%C3%A7%C3%A3o_JOZIMAR.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Jozimar Luciovanio Bernardo, Dimensão mágico-religiosa da palavra em textos orais sobre o catolicismo popular na comunidade São Domingos, Catalão-GO (Universidade Federal de Goiás, 2015), pp. 111–113","source_display":"Jozimar Luciovanio Bernardo, Dimensão mágico-religiosa da palavra em textos orais sobre o catolicismo popular na comunidade São Domingos, Catalão-GO (Universidade Federal de Goiás, 2015), pp. 111–113","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A thin little board, bored through and tied to a cord.","function_display":"Sounded with the matraca outside sleeping houses after midnight in the Lenten encomendação das almas, waking families to pray for their dead and, it was said, driving off evil spirits.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"encomenda das","display_name":"São Domingos berra-boi: God does not sleep","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-008_zerries1953_fig2.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-008_zerries1953_fig2_thumb.jpg","alt":"Zerries’s figure 2 is a Nahuquá fish-shaped bull-roarer, drawn as a long tapered blade with a forked tail and bold zigzag bands.","credit":"Otto Zerries, The Bull-roarer among South American Indians (1953), Fig. 2, after von den Steinen 1894","license":"Scholarly figure crop; non-commercial research use","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Nahuquá fish-shaped bull-roarer, Zerries fig. 2","pool_id":"auto-SA-Z1953-008_zerries1953_fig2","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"bernardo2015-001-encomendacao-das-almas-rezadores-of-sao-domingos-catalao"}