Every offering begins with a simple question and ends with a more difficult one. The first is what to bring. The second is what happens to it after you leave.
This guide answers both. The offering for Iemanjá is one of the most popular devotional gestures in Brazil. It is also one of those that generate the most doubt: white rose or champagne, beach or lagoon, and what to do if you live far from the coast.
Here is the complete step by step, with what tradition asks and what the terreiros themselves have been guiding regarding the care of the water.
What to offer to Iemanjá
The repertoire of gifts for the Queen of the Sea is stable and easy to assemble. It revolves around white, perfume, and vanity objects.
- White flowers: roses first. Palms and chrysanthemums also enter. Bring them without the cellophane and without the elastic.
- Perfume: lavender and jasmine are the most cited aromas in tradition.
- Soap, comb, and mirror: classic gifts linked to royalty and self-care.
- Fruits: melon, watermelon, apple, pear, and grape.
- White sweets: coconut manjar is the most associated with her.
- White and light blue candles: the arrangement varies by house, and many people alternate the two colors.
White champagne appears frequently in popular Umbanda offerings. It is worth noting that it is a devotional custom, not food for the orixá (orisha).
A gift is not a payment. The offering is a gesture of gratitude and connection, not an exchange with a delivery deadline. Whoever promises a certain result in exchange for an offering is selling something else.
How to set up the offering step by step
- Choose a container that does not become trash. A straw basket, natural fiber basketry, or a clay alguidar. No styrofoam or plastic trays.
- Line it with white cotton fabric, if you wish. Synthetic fabric does not decompose.
- Arrange the flowers first, then the fruits, then the small items.
- Light the candles on the sand or on a stone, never inside the basket that goes into the water.
- Say what you came to say. It can be a known prayer, it can be your own words.
- Collect what is left before leaving: packaging, plastic, glass, candle remains.
Whoever wants the general script that works for any orixá can find it in how to make an offering to the orixás. For the choice of candle colors, the ritual candles guide resolves the most common doubt.
Where to deliver: sea, river, lagoon, or at home
Here lies the biggest doubt for those who do not live on the coast. And here the houses truly diverge.
Part of the terreiros understand that Iemanjá receives only in the sea, the great calunga, and that the river and waterfall are the domain of Oxum. Another part delivers in lagoons, reservoirs, and rivers without any problem of conscience. Who decides this is your house of the orixás (casa de santo), not a blog article.
What history records is that Iemanjá was born as a freshwater orixá. In Africa, the worship was established among the Egbá people, in the waters of the Yemoja river. With the Yoruba wars and the migration to Abeokuta, Pierre Verger records the Ogun river as the new home of the orixá. The sea entered the worship later, during the crossing to Brazil.
And there is a strong institutional precedent for the offering in freshwater. Minas Gerais has no beach, and even so, it has celebrated Iemanjá for more than seventy years. The Festa de Iemanjá da Lagoa da Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte, has taken place since the 1950s: the city hall says 1957, and the Estado de Minas, 1953. It is celebrated on August 15, the day of Our Lady of Good Voyage, the city's patron saint, and it has been a Cultural Heritage of Belo Horizonte since 2019. In the Federal District, which also has no coastline, the festival takes place in Praça dos Orixás, at Lagoa Paranoá, and was listed as heritage in 2018.
If there is no accessible water, the most common way is to consecrate the offering at home. Choose a clean corner, place the manjar on a white plate, light the candle next to it, and leave it until it goes out on its own. After that, the food is thrown away and the dishes are washed and put away.
Offering without trash: what never goes into the water
This section is not a moral lesson from outside. The guidance comes from within the tradition, from fishermen and from mothers and fathers of santo who live with the results.
The numbers call for caution. During the Washing of Rio Vermelho in Salvador, Limpurb collected more than 80 tons of waste, with 295 professionals mobilized. It is the waste from the entire event, and the city hall does not separate what was offering. A project cited by Mongabay collected about 6 tons of PET, cans, and plastic that are not part of the offerings. In the Z1 Fishermen's Colony, which sorts the baskets, the president estimates that 30% of the gifts are not biodegradable.
The Salvador City Hall advises bringing natural flowers, vegetable wax candles, wooden combs, unpackaged soaps, fruits, and wooden utensils. And it advises against souvenirs, plastic, and paper-coated objects.
What stays out of the water:
- glass of any kind, including perfume bottles and champagne bottles
- plastic, styrofoam, and coated packaging
- mirror, plastic comb, jewelry, and metal accessories
- clothing and synthetic fabric
There is a real tension here, and it would be dishonest to hide it. Mirrors, combs, and perfume are very traditional gifts for Iemanjá and are precisely on the list of what pollutes.
Terreiros, fishermen, and the Salvador city hall now advise delivering the content, not the packaging. Cici de Oxalá (Obatala), from Ilé Àse Òpó Aganju, advises giving the comb to adults and children instead of throwing it into the sea. A report by Mongabay Brasil records this and other terreiro practices, including the Gantois position in favor of environmental education.
Who loves the Queen of the Sea does not dirty her house. The motto is from the Balaio Verde movement and summarizes the point better than any explanation.
When delivering the offering
There is no single date for Iemanjá in Brazil, and this is a reflection of the history of each region.
| Date | Where |
|---|---|
| February 2 | Salvador, in Rio Vermelho, the biggest festival in the country |
| August 15 | Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, in Pampulha |
| December 8 | São Paulo and the festival inside the terreiros of Umbanda |
| December 31 | beaches of the Southeast, at the turn of the year |
The August 15 is the date of Rio's Umbanda, and the reason for it is explained in Day of Iemanjá. In the research by Cristiane Barros (UFJF), the festival inside the terreiros of Umbanda is on December 8. The turn of the year has its own guide in Iemanjá in the new year. Outside of the big dates, Saturday is the day of the week most associated with the orixá in a good part of the houses.
An important note about syncretism: Our Lady of Glory, of the Navigators and of the Conception were associated with Iemanjá during the repression of Afro-Brazilian worship. It was a survival strategy, not a fusion of identities.
Comida de santo is not a beach gift
It is worth separating two things that the internet usually mixes.
The popular gift, which any devotee can take, is what this guide describes: flowers, perfume, fruits, white sweets.
Orixá food is another category. In Ketu Candomblé, Iemanjá's foods are funfun, a Yoruba word for white, and they are prepared in the terreiro with fundamento and under guidance. This includes manjar, fish in white corn, mungunzá, white rice, and canjica, served in white dishes. Iemanjá's ebó appears in formulations with cooked white corn, sweet oil, salt, and onion.
If you are not initiated, this is not a barrier. It simply means that the orixá food requires the hand of someone who has the fundamento. The gift of gratitude you take yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Which perfume to offer to Iemanjá?
Lavender and jasmine are the aromas most associated with the orixá. The practical detail is to deliver the perfume without the glass bottle: spray it on the flowers or in the basket before taking it. Cici de Oxalá, from Ilé Àse Òpó Aganju, also warns not to overdo the lavender, because the product burns the roses.
What drink to offer to Iemanjá?
White champagne is the most popular in Umbanda offerings, followed by mineral water and white wine. However, a glass bottle cannot go into the water. The solution used in many houses is to pour the drink on the sand or at the water's edge and take the empty bottle back.
What does it mean when the sea returns the offering?
There is a popular interpretation that the returned gift was refused. Pierre Verger recorded that, "according to tradition," the accepted offering must dive to the bottom. Treat this with calm. If your offering returned to the sand, the most respectful gesture is to collect the material and not leave it on the beach.
Can I make an offering to Iemanjá far from the sea?
Yes, and there is an old precedent. Belo Horizonte has celebrated Iemanjá at Lagoa da Pampulha since the 1950s, and the festival is a Cultural Heritage of the city. Even so, some houses understand that Iemanjá is only received at sea. Ask your Pai or Mãe de santo before defining the location.
How many candles to light for Iemanjá?
There is no mandatory number. A white candle already fulfills the role. Common arrangements in Umbanda houses use seven white candles, or alternate white and light blue. The care that matters more than the count is to light them on the sand or on the stone and collect the leftover wax afterward.
Where to buy items for the Iemanjá offering
At Joia Mística Laroyê, you assemble the entire offering with items that do not become trash in the water:
- White and light blue candles: in altar and delivery sizes
- Clay alguidar and white porcelain: for the manjar and to set at home
- Wooden comb and unpackaged soap: the classic gifts, in the version the beach accepts
- Lavender (alfazema) perfume and essences: to spray on the flowers without taking glass
- Crystal bead necklace and Iemanjá statue: for the home altar
- Towel and white cotton fabric: to line the basket
Visit our shop in Extrema, Minas Gerais or talk to us via WhatsApp and we ship all over Brazil.
For those who want to go deeper, it is worth reading the study by Aniceto and Scoz about solid waste in offerings to Iemanjá in Tramandaí. Published in the Brazilian Journal of Environmental Education from Unifesp, it discusses the distance between theory and practice on this point. And whoever wants to know the orixá better before assembling the basket can find the complete profile in Who is Iemanjá and the portrait of the filhos de Iemanjá.
References
- Belo Horizonte City Hall: Culture Foundation will restore the Monument to Iemanjá
- Estado de Minas: Iemanjá Festival in Pampulha, 2026
- Pierre Verger: Orixás, book entry
- Cristiane Amaral de Barros, UFJF: Iemanjá and Pomba-gira, images of the feminine in Umbanda
- Salvador City Hall: guidance on biodegradable gifts for Iemanjá
- Mongabay Brasil: report on the Iemanjá festival and the reduction of pollution from offerings in the sea
- Aniceto and Scoz, Brazilian Journal of Environmental Education (Unifesp): study on solid waste in offerings to Iemanjá in Tramandaí
