Every year on May 1, members of the Vale do Amanhecer spiritual community in Brazil gather for their biggest ceremony of the year, the Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator. The religion known as Vale do Amanhecer (or Valley of the Dawn, or, officially, Social Works of the Christian Spiritualist Order) was founded in 1959 by a charismatic woman known as Tia Neiva. Neiva had been working as a truck driver in Brasilia when she began to experience visions of spirits and extraterrestrial beings that she said imparted lessons to her. The spiritual group she began with her partner, Mario Sassi, grew into a community of thousands of mediums who claim to communicate with spirits, and it combines doctrines and symbolism from Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Incan and Afro-Brazilian religions; ancient-Egyptian concepts; and a belief in extraterrestrial life, intergalactic travel, and reincarnation. Members of the movement claim to have hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide who attend temples located in Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Japan, and the United States.
Photos: The Worshippers of the Valley of the Dawn
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Nymphs, female devotees of the Vale do Amanhecer religious community, pray during their biggest ceremony of the year at their temple complex in Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn), a community on the outskirts of Planaltina, 50 kilometers from the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, on May 1, 2019. #
Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty -
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A worshipper attends Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator annual celebrations in the Vale do Amanhecer community in the Planaltina neighborhood of Brasilia on May 1, 2017. #
Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters -
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An image of the goddess Mother Yara stands in a temple during an annual gathering that celebrates the religious doctrine of the Sunrise Order (another name for Vale do Amanhecer) on May 1, 2014. #
Eraldo Peres / AP -
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