Salvador - Umbanda

Umbanda in Salvador? Do you mean Candomblé? There are practitioners of umbanda in Salvador as there probably are in any city of any size in Brazil but the dominant tradition in Salvador is candomblé. They are separate religions/ traditions even if the differences aren't immediately apparent to the casual observer. Umbanda is much bigger in Rio , where it originated.

A session? You want to attend a ceremony/ visit a terreiro? Well there are certain guides who conduct such tours in Salvador but you might be better off contacting a mãe or pai de santo directly and asking if you may attend. That would be the most respectful approach.

UFBA ,the federal university, produces a list of all the known terreiros in Salvador. One or two identify themselves as belonging to a tradition of umbanda. It's searchable too.

http://www.terreiros.ceao.ufba.br/terreiro/config/120

There are contact details for each one on the list. I cannot vouch for how update it is.

A word of warning. Many of these casas/terreiros are in parts of town that are less than sanguine or secure. Quite a lot of them, aren't immediately obvious and won't be easy to find as they tend to be just houses. The UFBA list provides photos, but they aren't necessarily up to date. If you aren't familiar with the city, you might be best to ask about specific areas. Hopefully you speak Portuguese with some degree of fluency.

Good luck!

If you practice the religion at home, your own mae/pai do santo should be able to arrange an introduction to someone in Salvadot.
If you are not a practitioner, keep in mind that umbanda/ candomble are religions, not spectator sports. Just because you have some curiosity does not give you right or reason to turn either of them into one IMO. You likely won't see anything shocking like animal sacrifice or people in trances or whatever exoticism you may have heard about, anyway, just folks endlessly walking in circles to drums, for hours and hours; pretty boring, in fact. (I would certainly never go with a gaggle of intrusive foreign tourists on some "tour" to anyone's house of worship, anywhere.)
I would second that if you insist on going, you should contact someone directly at a terreiro to ask permission in advance. (If you are based long-term in Salvador, and speak good Portuguese, just ask around to the neighbors about who practices, and have an introduction made.)
And most terreiros in Salvador are not in areas of town most newbie gringo tourists would feel comfortable or safe. Even local taxi drivers can't reliably find some terreiros on their own given an address.

I would urge you to give your idea more thought and research.

Oi Corisco, espero q vc fale bem também. Se nao, nao vai entender do q estou a falar. A minha pergunta tem um fundo sólido, nao se preocupe. Eu ja fui na Umbanda em Sao Lourenco - como um gestante assistindo a sessao. Logo depois eu fui convidado para um trabalho na Mesa Branca. Foi um prazer de verdade. Agora, nao sou Brasileiro, sou Tcheco e estou visitando Brazil de novo, dessa vez com família. Estamos em Salvador e por isso estou buscando Umbanda por aqui. Parece que as coisas sao bem diferentes do que as em SL. Nao tem "ceremonies", tem so as consultas com o Terreiro. Isso nao sei como funciona. O que eu estou precisando seria uma como lá, e para deixar meu filho levar um passe. Entendo que os lugares onde ficam nao sao necessariamente seguros, e por isso essa pergunta.

Obrigado,
Felipe

Ola Novo.

Sinto muito de desiludi-lo, mas parece que tenho mais experiências com Umbada do q vc, mesmo que tenho visto so por duas vezes. Para vc obter mais informacoes sobre isso, leia a minha resposta anterior.

Sinto muito vc achou Umbanda coisa chata. Pelo q vc disse, as coisas nao apareceram para vc, mas nao seja triste - é só querer e os espíritos vao aparecer numa demonstracao que nao vai deixar vc com duvida nenhuma.

Desejo a vc um entendimento de presunção de inocência na proxima vez vc tentar julgar sem saber a verdade.

Abracos
Felipe

Felipe, You're right. I know little about Umbanda through personal experience, since Candomble or Espiritismo are what Brazilians I know are involved with. Friends of friends in NYC practice Umbanda, but I've not yet met anyone there. I don't think it's "chato" at all, just that most naive posters here have unrealistic expectations of what they might see as spectators. And that is usually the profile of posters asking questions about those religiopns here on the forum, so the responsibility is yours for not giving any background initially. Many residents of major cities in the US can, if they are serious about any of these religions, find a place to learn more at home. I do not think it is appropriate to treat anyone's religious service as a performance art piece for entertainment on a vacation. If you have the ties you claim, perhaps it would be most effective to contact those people for connections in Salvador. Get good directions and arrange for the taxi driver who brings you to come back to get you at a given time.

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