The district has a patron saint, the Blessed Virgin Mary (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora das Graças).

[7] The name "muriqui" itself comes from a corruption of the word myraqui, of the Tupi language, with the alternates buriqui, barigui and baregui.

[8] According to Alcides Pissinatti, in "Management of Muriquis in Captivity" (2005):[9] Its approximate meaning is "people that swing as they come and go" and it refers particularly to the large, pale brown monkeys that inhabit forests along Brazil's Atlantic coast, initially assigned the scientific name of Ateles hypoxanthus by Wied-Neuwied (1958).However, according to von Martius' glossary, the word comes from the Tupi words jemoroo ("to nourish"; muru, "nutrient") and aiké (a contraction of aikobê: "to have", "to exist").

[10] Prior to 1567, all land that now belongs to Mangaratiba – including modern-day Muriqui – was part of the freguesia of Angra dos Reis, under the Captaincy of São Vicente.

[36][37][38] Muriqui is home to an art installation by Japanese artist Mariko Mori called Ring: One With Nature, inaugurated atop the Bride's Veil (Portuguese: Véu da Noiva) waterfall in August 2016 to celebrate the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The tale is usually related to the high-speed winds in the area during winter (roughly in the period from the end of August to the start of September).

[45][46] According to the Brazilian Archaeology Institute [pt] (Portuguese: Instituto de Arqueologia Brasileira, shortened IAB), there are two different versions of the story.

E quando o mesmo faleceu, os amigos levaram o corpo no caixão para enterrá-lo sem ser nas montanhas.

No momento em que vão colocá-lo na sepultura, começou a ventar muito forte, e os amigos com medo, deixaram o caixão e foram para suas casas.

No dia seguinte, ao parar o vento voltaram para acabar o enterro, e lá chegando encontraram o caixão vazio.

A partir daquele dia todos acreditaram que o vento havia levado o corpo de "VIEIRA" para as montanhas e como não foi enterrado, volta todos os anos para visitar Muriqui, local que ele muito gostava.

From that day on, everyone believed that the wind had taken "VIEIRA"'s body to the mountains and, as he wasn't buried, he comes back every year to visit Muriqui, a place he much liked.

The second version, arguably more grounded in reality, although less common, is as follows:[6] Um corpo estava sendo velado quando, lá pela madrugada, veio uma ventania tão forte que derrubou o caixão de cima da mesa.