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The Umbanda religion worships Iemanja as one of the seven orixas of the African Pantheon. She is the Queen of the Ocean, the patron deity of the fishermen and the survivors of shipwrecks, the feminine principle of creation and the spirit of moonlight. A syncretism happens between the catholic Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes (Our Lady of the Seafaring) and the orixa Iemanja of the African Mithology. Sometimes, a feast can honor both.[4][5]

In Salvador, Bahia, Iemanja is celebrated by Candomble on the very same day consecrated by the Catholic Church to Our Lady of Seafaring (Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes).[6] Every February 2, thousands of people line up at dawn to leave their offerings at her shrine in Rio Vermelho.
Offering to Iemanja
Small boat with Iemanja image, flowers and gifts

Gifts for Iemanja usually include flowers and objects of female vanity (perfume, jewelry, combs, lipsticks, mirrors). These are gathered in large baskets and taken out to the sea by local fishermen. Afterwards a massive street party ensues.

Iemanja is also celebrated every December 8 in Salvador, Bahia. The Festa da Conceicao da Praia (Feast to Our Lady of Conception of the church at the beach) is a city holiday dedicated to the Catholic saint and also to Iemanja. Another feast occurs on this day in the Pedra Furada, Monte Serrat in Salvador, Bahia, called the Gift to Iemanja, when fishermen celebrate their devotion to the Queen of the Ocean.

Outside Bahia State, Iemanja is celebrated mainly by followers of the Umbanda religion.

On New Year's Eve in Rio de Janeiro, millions of cariocas, of all religions, dressed in white gather on Copacabana beach to greet the New Year, watch fireworks, and throw (white) flowers and other offerings into the sea for the goddess in the hopes that she will grant them their requests for the coming year. Some send their gifts to Iemanja in wooden toy boats. Paintings of Iemanja are sold in Rio shops, next to paintings of Jesus and other Catholic saints. They portray her as a woman rising out of the sea. Small offerings of flowers and floating candles are left in the sea on many nights at Copacabana.

In Sao Paulo State, Iemanja is celebrated in the two first weekends of December on the shores of Praia Grande city. During these days many vehicles garnished with Iemanja icons and colors (white and blue) roam from the Sao Paulo mountains to the sea littoral, some of them traveling hundreds of miles. Thousands of people rally near Iemanja's statue in Praia Grande beach.

In Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul State, on February 2, the image of Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes is carried to the port of Pelotas. Before the closing of the catholic feast, the boats stop and host the Umbanda followers that carry the image of Iemanja, in a syncretic meeting that is watched by thousand of people on the shore.[7]
[edit] Cuba and Haiti

She is venerated in Vodou as LaSiren.

In Santeria, Yemaya is seen as the mother of all living things as well as the owner of all waters. Her number is 7 (a tie into the seven seas), her colors are blue and white (representing water), and her favorite offerings include melons, molasses ("melaco" is sugar cane syrup), whole fried fishes and pork rinds. She has been syncretized with Our Lady of Regla.

Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,
Hid in this silent, dull retreat,
Untouched thy honied blossoms blow,
Unseen thy little branches greet;
...No roving foot shall crush thee here,
...No busy hand provoke a tear.

By Nature's self in white arrayed,
She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,
And planted here the gaurdian shade,
And sent soft waters murmuring by;
...Thus quietly thy summer goes,
...Thy days declinging to repose.

Smit with those charms, that must decay,
I grieve to see your future doom;
They died--nor were those flowers more gay,
The flowers that did in Eden bloom;
...Unpitying frosts, and Autumn's power
...Shall leave no vestige of this flower.

From morning suns and evenign dews
At first thy little being came:
If nothing once, you nothing lose,
For when you die you are the same;
...The space between, is but an hour,
...The frail duration of a flower.

-Philip Freneau, The Wild Honey-Suckle

I took this picture during my visit to Cuba, about three weeks ago.

And may you have a happy day! (That is, if you're in the western hemisphere. If not, then have a happy tomorrow!)