Rio de Janeiro - 29 December 2020

1. Priest singing to the gods

2. People gathered at market for ceremony

3. People playing drums at ceremony

4. Priests dancing to music

5. Various Renato Rodriguez Ferreira and other Umbanda worshippers wearing white dancing

6. Worshippers listening to music

7. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Renato Rodriguez Ferreira, Umbanda priest:

"We have come here with humility to appeal to the natural forces of Yemanja (Sea Goddess) to give us a cure, a cure for our Brazil."

7. Worshippers listening to music

8. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Mario Luis, Candomble Priest

"We have to pray and ask the gods, the old ones, so they fix our health and help us survive this world."

9. Woman placing flowers for Yemanja (also known as Lemanja) goddess

10. Woman writing a letter to Yemanja  

11. White balloons released in tribute to COVID-19 victims

12. Various of worshippers bringing offerings to Yemanja on Copacabana Beach

Worshippers in Rio de Janeiro asked for relief from the coronavirus on Tuesday as they took part in a traditional ritual honouring the sea goddess Yemanja.

Normally, followers of the Afro-Brazilian Candomble and Umbanda faiths express their personal wishes and hopes for the new year during the annual event.

But this year's ceremony was overshadowed by a pandemic which has brought great suffering to Brazil.

COVID-19 has sickened more than 7.5 million Brazilians and killed more than 190,000, the third-highest number in the world.

One of the priests attending the ritual said he had called on the natural forces of Yemanja "to give us a cure, a cure for our Brazil".

The priests and worshippers, many dressed in white, chanted and sang traditional songs and incantations during the ritual.

Later, they launched their offerings and written messages to the goddess into the sea at Copacabana Beach.

Candomble and Umbanda are syncretic Afro-Brazilian religions, developed by slaves when Portuguese colonisers forcibly converted them to Catholicism.