For someone from outside, perhaps everything seems the same, a repetition of the same words and endless sentences. How can they hold on ? Is that the enter in an ecstasy state of being ? In the South of Brazil and in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Guarani sing and dance for hours and even for days.
To sing in their own language gives to the Guarani spiritual and corporal force and helps them maintain the communication with the divinities. Without dancing and singing, the life of the Guarani in this world would be in risk. As the gods play their instruments to let the Earth exists, the human beings also should do this. All are part of the same orchestra.
The first sacred song was sung by the goddess of the Guarani Ñande Jarí (our grandmother). With this song she saved the lost earth, because Ñande Ramõi Jusu Papa (Our Great Eternal Grandfather) that created this earth, almost started to destroy his own creation because of a misunderstanding with a woman. He was with deep rage, because of the jealousies of men occupying the earth. But he was prevented by doing this due to the singing of the first sacred song by Ñande Jari, taking as an instrument to accompany her the takuapu: female instrument, made of taquara, approximately 1,10m, that is hit on the soil producing a deaf sound that accompanies the masculine mbaraka, a kind of gourd rattle instrument with specific seeds inside.
The Guarani people are very religious and they have many religious activities. Depending on the situation and the circumstances (lack or excess of rain, during harvest etc), the rituals are carried out daily, most of the time at the beginning of the night. The ñanderu, the religious leaders, lead these rituals. They begin to sing the ´great song´, a text that nobody may interrupt, and the community repeats each sentence, accompanied by the takuapu and mbaraka.
The lyrics and especially the instruments have the goal to cal the gods. The gods answer with sending their messengers (tembiguáis kuéra), who come to hear the songs and see the dances. After that they go back to inform that the inhabitants of the Earth are cheerful. When there is thunder and lightning during the rituals, it is a sign that the messengers are present.
The way the Guarani sing also has special meaning. The low sounds are close to the earth, the high sounds would be far away from it. The girls have to sing strong and high, all together, in chorus, and tuned. That pleases the heart.
There exists a myth of the Guarani in which the difference between Indians and no-Indians is explained. The hero creator gave to the Indians the mbaraka and for the no-Indians he chose the kuatia jehairä (paper to write). With these choices the creator already explained the difference: the world of sounds and music and the world of the written word.
Land without evil, This land is good land, This is the golden and perfect land, We arrived there by plane, And there they also dance.
Guarani song
