batizado

In a little less than two weeks I will be going through my capoeira batizado. A batizado (‘baptism’) is a sort of graduation ceremony one has to go through in order to be taken into the community, and be considered a capoeirista by others. It is also a Big Deal. It is during this ceremony that you receive your capoeira name – a nickname by which you are thereafter called, which all players use during their whole lives.

A short while after getting into capoeira, I discovered what few resources there were for finding out more about the game, whether it be books in English or web sites that could be properly translated by Babelfish. This ended up being rather positive; I immersed myself into a study of Brazilian Portuguese and now have a basic grasp of the language. However, it is because of this lack of information that I think I’m going to try to write about it more. Nobody knows anything; everything is still passed out mouth-to-ear, though I’m told if you can read Portuguese decently you can pick up dozens of books.

I think the point is that I want to have other people to have things to read if they want to know. So that’s what I’m trying to do, though my school’s ideas may be far different from a lot of others’. (This is a subject I may also touch upon later.)

So the batizado is on the 12th. Apparently there are teachers from New York and other cities coming, so it should be pretty packed. Photos later maybe.