By Bibiana Belisário
There's a curious fact about leafcutter ants: despite their small size, they can carry leaves, bark, branches, and plant fragments that weigh dozens of times more than their own bodies. The feat is impressive for its strength, but also for its organization.
In Barbalha, in southern Ceará, this principle is repeated on a human scale annually.
Under a sun that exceeds 30ºOn Sunday, May 31, 2026, approximately 200 men carried a 23-meter-long, three-ton angico tree trunk along a seven-kilometer route from Sítio São Joaquim to the city's Historic Center.
The tree trunk, transformed into a flagpole for the flag of Saint Anthony, inaugurates one of the most emblematic celebrations on the Brazilian cultural calendar: the Festa do Pau da Bandeira (Flagpole Festival), recognized by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) as a cultural heritage of Brazil.
How can a group of men carry on their shoulders a structure that none of them would be able to lift alone?
Viewed up close, the driving of the Pau da Bandeira (Flagpole) functions as a... collective gear Built over nearly a century of tradition, it features mechanisms of cooperation and forms of knowledge transmission passed down from generation to generation. What drives the tradition is a wisdom shared among hundreds of individuals.
“I am not alone. I am an element within a world, which are the flag bearers,” defines Rildo Teles. Born in the Rosário neighborhood and raised in Vila Santo Antônio, he has been captain of the Pau da Bandeira group since the 2000s, when he was summoned by João Filgueira Teles, a historical donor of flagpoles.
The captain's responsibility is to oversee the selection of the tree, coordinate the cutting stages, organize the loading, monitor risks, mediate conflicts, and ensure everyone returns safely.
"Captain is a kind of father figure. And he's not just a father," he summarizes.
Hierarchy exists, but it is not imposed by authority; it is sustained by accumulated experience where the older members teach the younger ones. Newcomers arrive accompanied by parents, uncles, siblings, or friends and learn by observing.
The departure time is known. At noon, the log leaves the rural area heading towards the city. The arrival, however, depends on the pace of the porters.
“The Flagpole only has a departure time,” says Rildo. “It doesn’t have an arrival time. My commitment is that it arrives with the carriers unharmed.” The phrase reveals the logic that more important than keeping to a supposed schedule is preserving the group.
But perhaps the most revealing aspect of this intelligence lies neither in strength nor in logistics: before the procession, the porters go through a ritual known as baptism of the earthIn the forest, men cover each other with mud and dust. They rub dirt on their faces. And in the clothes, in a playful way that became one of the most memorable images of the party.
“We, men and the earth, have this connection. This baptism began deep in the forest so that we could feel closer to the earth, throwing dirt at each other, smearing each other, playfully, to connect,” he explains.
The ritual functions as a symbolic leveler: "All are equal and baptized by the same earth."
The image embodies two of the fundamental principles that underpin the Flagpole: trust and commitment. After all, carrying three tons requires believing that the other person will do their part, supporting the weight when necessary and protecting those beside them.
The most experienced men occupy the heaviest part of the trunk. They are the ones who know the exact moment to lift, support their shoulders, distribute the weight, and know when it's time to lower the load.
“If it weighs on your shoulder, it will fall to the ground,” explains Neto, one of the flag bearers, during a press conference. “The flag bearer knows when it’s going to fall.”
The angico tree is advancing slowly. There are no measuring instruments, nor systematic commands; what exists is a shared bodily knowledge, built through repetition. With each step, the torso seems to breathe along with the porters.
When the weight changes direction, hundreds of men respond almost simultaneously. When one retreats, another advances. When someone shows signs of exhaustion, the relay happens naturally among neighborhood companions, friends, or relatives.
"It needs to be checked because nobody can manage to carry it all the way there," Neto says. "We take turns among friends."
This ability to coordinate without absolute centralization is reminiscent of the cooperative systems found in nature. In ant colonies, complex decisions emerge from the sum of small individual actions. In Barbalha, the movement of the trunk also depends on the constant reading of the group's behavior, and the observer has the feeling of watching a single organism trying to find balance.
The porters have historically organized themselves by neighborhoods such as Alto da Alegria, Rosário, Vila Santo Antônio, Bela Vista, and Cirolândia. However, when faced with the tree trunk, these divisions disappear.
“Here we are one big family,” summarizes Alexandre Luna, a porter for 22 years. “The most important thing here is unity.”
The Association of Flagpole Carriers, created in 2025, emerged from this effort of organization and identification. Today, around 120 members are formally associated, while between 150 and 200 men directly participate in the transport each year.
Furthermore, in recent years, the tradition has begun to follow protocols established through a Conduct Adjustment Agreement (TAC) signed with the Public Prosecutor's Office. Among the measures established are the identification of the porters by means of official wristbands and shirts, which may retain their own colors and symbols depending on the group.
"There's the Alto da Alegria group, the..." Little blue ones, Clay pot, the Daisy flower“Each one has their own shirt, but they all carry the official porter identification,” explains Rildo Teles.
The agreement also extends to alcohol consumption during the journey. "Alcohol is strictly controlled," says the captain. According to him, participants who show signs of intoxication are removed from the transport.
Along the way, the Pau da Bandeira crossed one of the bridges of the São Francisco River Integration Project.Viewed from above, the scene produces a rare image where, on one side, there is a concrete channel through which water brought from afar flows; on the other, a human chain supporting a log weighing almost three tons.
For a few minutes, two distinct forms of social technology meet as if uniting two stories from the backlands: the struggle for water and the persistence of faith.
A porter for 56 years and recognized this year as an Immortal Master by the International Organization for Folklore and Arts, Antonio Erfo Feitosa Luna He follows the route. He began the tradition as a teenager, carrying the so-called "scissors"—a smaller structure used in the flag-raising—because he was too young to participate in the main procession.
“When I started, I was between 13 and 14 years old,” he recalls. “Then I kept touching it until I reached the head of his penis.”
Over more than five decades, he has seen the festival transform. "A lot has changed. But the strength and emotion remain the same."
As the Flagpole approaches the cityAs the streets narrow and the crowds become denser, the log in the forest was carried by a human anthill of just over two hundred carriers. At the entrance to Barbalha, it encounters another group.
From side streets, windows, sidewalks, and balconies, thousands of people spread across the landscape. As happens when different trails of a colony converge on the same food source, the flows meet.
Beneath the layer of mud and sweat accumulated along the way, the men continue moving forward toward the same destination.
Paulo Júnior Veloso, a member of a family lineage linked to the Pau da Bandeira tradition, is the grandson of the legendary master Pavão — captain and leader of the flag bearers for decades. He began participating in the tradition at the age of 15.
“Being a porter for me is a testament to my faith in Saint Anthony,” he says. “My son is already a porter today.” And so knowledge circulates, through shared experiences, where gestures, care, and values are learned.
Just as happens in anthills, there are times when thousands of bodies seem to answer the same call. This year, when the Pau da Bandeira reached the Church of the Rosary.The clock showed exactly 18 PM.
The church bell rang, and the voices of the procession sang together one of the best-known verses of Northeastern Brazilian music: "When the clock strikes six, on his knees on the ground, the sertanejo (inhabitant of the sertão region) says his prayer." The Ave Maria Sertaneja, a song by Luiz Gonzaga, echoed through the crowd like a collective prayer.
For seven kilometers, the trunk travels horizontally. However, during the raising of the flag, the most symbolic transformation of the journey occurs. Like a branch finally finding its place in the architecture of an anthill, the angico tree ceases to be a burden and becomes a monument. All the energy distributed throughout the day converges into a single collective gesture: making it point towards the sky.
When the angico finally arrives at the Parish Church of Saint Anthony And it is erected before thousands of people, it's already around 20:55 pm. There, what one sees is the materialization of a social technology collectively built over 98 years. Some porters embrace each other, others remain silent. Some cry. Some give thanks.
The flag of Saint Anthony is standing.A living organism made of shoulders, memory, faith, and cooperation. As in colonies, individual strength matters less than the ability to act together.
Note: This report was inspired by a publication The photograph by Nivia Uchoa on social media. Her visual record of ants carrying a toothpick sparked reflection on the procession of the Santo Antônio Flagpole in Barbalha (CE), and gave rise to a discussion about cooperation and organization among the carriers.
