Famously bizarre event
On the 26nd of June the Catholic festival of Corpus Oyun Ä°ndir – Oyun Yükle Christi is celebrated all over Spain with processions, mystery plays and a wide variety of popular celebrations, but this one has to be the strangest. Since 1620 Castrillo de Murcia has celebrated Corpus Christi with an act that is known as El Colacho. It is believed that as the incarnate devils jump they take all their evil with them and the children are cleansed.This traditional Sapnish practise dates back on 1620 in the village of Castrillo de Murcia, the origins of the tradition are unknown but it is said to cleanse the babies of original sin, and is a sample of the mixture of pagan and religious traditions has been preserved in the Spanish folklore.
The famously bizarre event sees grown men dressed as the Devil leaping over a row of babies lying on mattresses in street. The question you might have, would be- who is protecting the babies from the example being set by the adults begs to be asked, but we can not doubt this traditional combination of religion and Spanish folklore which seems to be great fun, if not a little scary, to watch.
The celebrations last for a few days and the most important day is the Sunday following Corpus Christi. The shadowy brotherhood Santisimo Sacramento de Minerva are the people responsible for organizing the celebrations , they also chase and terrorize anybody and everybody in the town at regular intervals throughout the day.
They dress up as devils and harass party-goers, sometimes wielding whips or truncheons, running through the streets of the town with firecrackers and making noise and hitting anyone in its path. But the most important day of the festival is the day of Corpus Christi, when “El Colacho” jumps over babies who were born in that year in the village in the course of a spectacular procession.
