Occasions very often make human life easy; in fact, very easy. How? Well, a legend or lore can actually decide what is good and what is bad, differentiate between black and white, define an angel and a saint, and proclaim someone as a Satan or a God. El Colacho, the Spanish Baby Jumping Festival organized by the Brotherhood of Santisimo Sacramento de Minerva is one such strange occasion.
As part of the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi, the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos holds the El Colacho festival in late May or early June. The festival includes two role players, El Colacho, a devil, and El Atabalero, his companion, who participate in the event with the babies, who are believed to be impure. Three days before the holy Sunday, the two devils terrorize the people with all their pranks.
On Sunday, you witness an apocalypse, as the children and clergy march from the Church and come out on the streets. The babies, aging a month to a year, are laid on mattresses. As they wait for their deliverance, El Colacho leaps over the babies and purges the evil, thereby saving the village from sins and vices.
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