bembé

What it means

1. 1.

   A drumming celebration held for the orishas in the Lucumí religious tradition: batá drums, singing, dancing, food, and possession. This is the primary and literal sense.

2. 2.

   By extension in secular speech, a big loud party. Using it this way in front of practitioners is mildly tactless, in roughly the way 'that was a circus' is tactless about a funeral.

Examples with translations

• Hay bembé el sábado en casa de la madrina.

  There's a drumming ceremony on Saturday at the godmother's house.

• Se formó tremendo bembé en el pasillo.

  A huge racket of a party kicked off in the corridor.

Where it comes from

From Yoruba by way of Lucumí, the liturgical language of Cuban Santería, where it names the drum celebration itself. It reached English through Latin jazz — Chano Pozo and Dizzy Gillespie's 'Manteca' era — long before it was widely understood.