TOURISM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FESTIVITIES AT SANTA CRUZ DE GOIÁS, BRAZIL

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the Feast of the Divine of the Holy Spirit (Catholic celebration) of Santa Cruz de Goiás town, and identify the colonial legacies in the cultural tradition of this community and its maintenance by the local community. In addition, to understand the celebrations that have been adapted to local traditions, creating and recreating practices to add other vestiges of popular and catholic culture, such as Folia do Divino, Cavalhada, Batuque, Contradança and "Divino", as the main point of fraternization and union between families and devotees. The research was conceived with the objective of treating this immaterial cultural heritage which, from its origin, tends to integrate to the genuinely popular tradition. The guiding categories of this present study are cultural heritage and popular festivals. The methodology was based on bibliographic and documentary analysis, and data collection through participant observation and the application of the Focal Groups method. These procedures led the interpretations, dealing with the dimension of the subjective dimension, providing subsidy for the proposed analyzes. The results correlated to the bibliographical research with the constitution of the data. Although, this festivity had its origin in the Brazilian colonial period, but it remains to date with some changes and aggregations, in a process of cultural sustainability for the future generations.