The Baby-Jumping Colacho Festival
Since 1620 Castrillo de Murcia has celebrated Corpus Christi with an act that is known as El Colacho. The famously bizarre event sees grown men dressed as the Devil leaping over a row of babies lying in street.
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. It is believed that as the incarnate devils jump they take all their evil with them and the children are cleansed.
The event's origins are vague, but the celebration is an example of the mix of traditional Spanish folklore and religion, and great fun to watch!
The celebrations continue for a few days but the most important day is the Sunday following Corpus Christi. 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.
| Town Information: | Castrillo de Murcia |
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| Full Name: | |
| Directions: | 36km west of Burgos in the direction of Palencia. |
| Name: | Burgos Provincial Tourist Office |
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| Location: | Burgos |
| Address: | Asunción de Nuestra Señora, 3, 09003 Burgos |
| Phone: | +34 947 279 432 |
| Name: | Spanish National Tourist Office |
| Location: | Spain |
| Address: | José Lazaro Galdiano, 6, Madrid 28036 |
| Fax: | +34 913 43 35 00 |
| Name: | Spanish National Tourist Office (Turespaña) |
| Location: | Spain |
| Address: | Jose Lázaro Galdiano, 6, 28071 Madrid, Spain |
| Email: | infosmile@tourspain.es |
| Phone: | +34 913 43 35 00 |
| Name: | Spanish Tourist Board (London) |
| Location: | Spain |
| Address: | PO Box 4009, London, W1A 6NB |
| Email: | info.londres@tourspain.es |
| Phone: | +44 (0) 20 7486 8077 |
| Fax: | +44 (0) 20 7486 8034 |
