This article analyses the characteristics of popular feasts of Saint John and the Carnival in the city of Corumbá, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, formerly state of Mato Grosso (Brazil), during the turn of the 20th century. The poor population lived in the city in its own way, producing leisure and feasts, spheres of intense sociability. The constituting rituals fall within religious and secular universes, conferring greater autonomy to the population to act in these spheres. Thus, symbolic elements such as water and fire undergo resignifications considered superstitions by Catholic Church.
Corumbá; Popular feasts; Religious; Secular