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Baby Jumping in Castrillo de Murcia, Burgos
All parents want the best for their children but how many of us would try to protect our infants from illness and bad luck by laying them down in the street and allowing grown men to jump over them. This is exactly what will happen on 6th June 2012 in the small village of Castrillo de Murcia and has been happening there every year since 1620
Since 1620 Castrillo de Murcia, in the province of Burgos, has celebrated Corpus Christi at the end of May with a bizarre event that sees grown men leaping over helpless babies. Infants born within the last 12 months are selected to lie in the street while men dressed as the devil (El Colacho), carrying whips and sometimes truncheons, jump over them. It is believed that as the incarnate devils jump they take with them all their evil and the children are cleansed. The shadowy brotherhood of Santísimo Sacramento de Minerva - the people responsible for organising the celebrations - also chase and terrorise anybody and everybody in the town at regular intervals throughout the day. The Catholic festival of Corpus 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.
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