The story
Fiesta de Iemanja Montevideo in Montevideo/Ramirez Beach
An Afro-Uruguayan religious festival honoring Iemanja, goddess of the sea in Umbanda tradition, held every 2 February at Playa Ramirez in Montevideo, where devotees dressed in white and light blue gather with curious onlookers to leave floral and candle offerings at the shoreline each summer evening.
Every year on 2 February, without fail, Montevideo's Playa Ramirez and several other points along the city's Rio de la Plata coastline fill with devotees of Iemanja, the orixa of the sea venerated within Umbanda and related Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Uruguayan spiritual traditions that took root in the Rio de la Plata region over the twentieth century.