How and when vivas are given
A viva is given by the person leading the work, or by someone the leader designates for the moment, who stands, generally facing the Cruzeiro, and calls it out for others, especially the men present, to answer. Vivas are set aside during healing works and Concentrations, and are not given before the hymn of Confession is sung, nor on Holy Thursday or All Souls' Day.
Who and what they honor
A standard sequence recognized across much of the tradition opens with a viva to the Divine Eternal Father, followed in turn by the Queen of the Forest, Jesus Christ the Redeemer, the Patriarch Saint Joseph, all Divine Beings, the church's Master and Empire, and the whole brotherhood, closing with a viva to the Holy Cruzeiro itself. Beyond this core sequence, further vivas may be offered depending on the occasion: to the owner of the hinário being sung, to visiting churches or individuals, to those celebrating a birthday, to newly fardado members, or to the natural elements the doctrine associates with the divine, such as the sun, moon, and stars.
A remembered origin
One account passed down within the tradition holds that vivas were not part of the earliest festive works. As the story is told, a member named Guilherme Gomes experienced a miração, a visionary state, in which he witnessed a joyful work taking place in the astral plane and heard vivas being given and answered there. When he reported the vision to Mestre Irineu, Mestre is said to have told him to introduce the practice at the next work, and that this is how vivas entered the doctrine's festivities. This is offered here as a story told within the tradition about its own history, not as a documented historical record.