Update June 2024: The 2024 Carnaval Parade was a blast! Check out regular classes at ODC until next season!
At the start of each year, we begin preparing to impress the crowds & judges in the Carnaval San Francisco Grand Parade. At the largest multicultural festival on the West Coast, the parade is a celebration of Latino, Caribbean and African Diasporic traditions of the Mission District and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sambaxé earned 1st place in the Brazilian Category for the parade in 2022 and 2023. We’d love you to join us at the parade in 2025! All levels, ages, genders, backgrounds welcome. Stay tuned for details late 2024/early 2025.
What to expect for the Carnaval Season
Sambaxé’s 2024 Carnaval Theme
Sambaxé’s theme for 2024 is “Golden Cascades of Healing Waters” “Cachoeiras Douradas de Águas Curativas”
This year Sambaxé is looking to ancestral Afro-Brazilian/Yoruban religion roots and beliefs. We are honoring one of the most important deities (orixas), the powerful mother, Oxum.
Oxum is the Mother of Gold, goddess of the sweet waters, rivers and waterfalls. She represents divinity, femininity, fertility, beauty and love. Gold/yellow is her color, which is synonymous with divinity and power. Gold is illuminating, sacred, durable; it is precious. It is almost universally associated with the sun, or the highest stage in spiritual development. She brings forth abundance, prosperity and fertility.
Sambaxé is a fierce group of mostly women, many of which are literal mothers with children of their own, but also full of powerful mother figures like aunties, sisters, grandmas, teachers, therapists, etc. We are celebrating all of our mother figures and life energy / axé this year and invite all of you to celebrate and dance with us!
About Afro-Brazilian Religion/Beliefs
Orixas (deities) are worshiped in the Afro-Brazilian religions Candomblé, Umbanda, and in several other offshoot religions. According to Yoruba peoples (concentrated in the southwestern part of Africa), after the world was created, each orixá received a divine energy called Axé, giving the orixás the ability to govern certain aspects of the material world. Each orixá also represents different aspects of nature, both inside and outside the religious context. For example: Oxalá corresponds to the air we breathe and Oya/Iansã to the winds. Iemanjá is found in the oceans and seas; Oxum can be found in rivers and waterfalls.
The concept of Axé is an affirmation of faith in the divine power of the universe as a place where human beings can derive strength and energy from the celestial world of the orixás. In the Candomblé philosophy, axé is also defined as the power to make things happen! It is the power to invoke, to create light, or a pathway of positive energy.
As “the Golden Aphrodite” of the Greeks, Oxum is said in Brazil to be “the Mother of Gold.” She is associated with abundance and fortune. She is the goddess in the Afro-Brazilian religion (Candomble) of divinity, femininity, fertility, beauty and love. She is also known as the deity that represents the rivers, and that is why the Osun River, in Nigeria, is named after her. She reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy.
Because she represents fertility, many women ask Oxum to help them get pregnant, even when they are infertile. They also look for her when there is drought, as she controls the fresh water that helps to fertilize the fields. It is said that she is as delicate as the flow of streams among the rocks, but also as powerful as the great waterfalls.
Number: 5 ● Color: yellow/amber/gold ● Metal: Gold/Bronze ● Possession: Fan or Mirror ● Element: Water ● Symbols: Sun ● Sacred Day: Saturday ● Associations: Femininity and Fertility ● Gemstones: Amber, Diamonds, Imperial Topaz, Rutilated quartz, Citrine, golden beryl, yellow flourite ● Rhythm: Ijexa ● Ceremonial greeting: “Ore Yeyé O” ● Gifts: Yellow flowers, honey, peacock feathers, mirrors, shells, mead, white wine, oranges, sweets, or pumpkins, as well as perfume. cinnamon, lemons, coconut, yams, chicken, Goldschlager Liquor.
Oxum in a reading indicates sweetness and good cheer, beauty and flowing joy. She is the sweet or fresh waters (as opposed to the salt waters of Yemaya). She is known for healing the sick and bringing fertility and prosperity, and She especially watches over the poor and brings them what they need. As Orisha of love, Oshun is represented as a beautiful, charming and coquettish young woman. In some tales She is said to be a mermaid, with a fish's tail.
Her dance movements represent beauty and grace. She is extremely flirtatious and excitable with her gestures, as she is consistently smiling and giggling with laughter. Certain movements represent her gazing into her own reflection, through waters or mirrors, whilst other movements include her stroking or brushing her hair, and washing herself with water.
About Oxum
