Umbanda's stated ethic is caridade, charity, inherited from Kardecist Spiritism along with reincarnation and the idea that spirits progress through successive lives toward greater enlightenment. Helping the living is how a spirit advances, and mediums are the instrument of that help. Consultations are given free, and a house that charges for them is regarded with suspicion.
The public ritual is the gira, held on set nights in a centro or terreiro. It opens with prayers, often including the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary, the lighting of candles, and the cleansing of the space with incense. Songs, the pontos cantados, call each line of spirits in turn, and mediums receive their guides and are dressed and equipped for them: a pipe and a low stool for a preto velho, a headdress and a bow for a caboclo. Members of the public then queue for a consulta, speaking privately with an entity about illness, work, debt, family or fear, and receiving advice, a herbal bath, a cleansing passe, or an instruction to make a small offering.
Mediumship is developed rather than innate. New members attend development sessions over a period of years, learning to recognise and control incorporation under supervision, and only afterwards take consultations. Most Umbanda mediums are women.
Ritual style varies widely. Houses at the Spiritist end use hand-clapping, white clothing and no drums, and reject animal sacrifice outright. Houses at the African end use atabaque drums, elaborate ritual dress, and in some cases sacrifice. Leadership belongs to a pai or mae de santo, and centres are independent of one another. Federations exist and have real membership, but no doctrinal authority; there is no Umbanda scripture, creed or hierarchy binding the whole.