This entry records that Umbanda, a Brazilian religion formally organized in the early twentieth century, combines elements drawn from African-derived traditions including Candomble, from Kardecist Spiritism, and from Roman Catholicism and indigenous Brazilian spiritual traditions, structuring its prayer and ritual life around communication with a range of spirit guides, most distinctively the caboclos, spirits associated with indigenous Brazilian heritage, and pretos velhos, spirits of elderly enslaved Africans, without presenting Umbanda's specific prayers or ritual invocations here.
Umbanda ceremonies, held at a terreiro under the leadership of a medium who channels these spirit guides for consultation, healing and guidance, involve specific songs, called pontos, and ritual procedures that vary somewhat across the considerable diversity of Umbanda houses and lineages that have developed since the religion's formal founding, reflecting Umbanda's character as a genuinely syncretic and still actively developing tradition rather than one built around a single fixed liturgical canon. Given this internal diversity and the community-specific, mediumship-based transmission of its ritual songs and prayers, this entry limits itself to describing Umbanda's general character and historical formation.