Salto del Colacho otherwise known as Baby Jumping Festival

The unusual cultural event has taken place since the 1620’s, and entices people from all over the globe to join them in the village and take part. Festivals like this in Spain are famous for their originality, and El Colacho is yet another incredibly unique event considered one of the 7 world’s most bizarre ‘feats of strength’ events. Since its beginning, the Catholic Brotherhood of the Sacred Sacrament of Minerva have been responsible for the organization of the week-long celebration which takes place to mark the Corpus Christi feast.

Your experience at the Colacho Baby Jumping Festival 

The high-point of the festival is on the final Sunday when the Salto del Colacho takes place. On the day, the “Colacho”, who is a man dressed as the Devil wearing a colorful red and yellow outfit and a mask, runs through the town with a tassel style whip to “terrorise” the locals who launch insults at him in return. This is all part of the ritual and it is just a warm-up for the main event of “the baby-jumping”.

When the time comes for the ‘salto’ or jump, the tradition has it that all babies born within the year in the town of Castrillo de Murcia are presented on a mattress on the floor outside their house. When the Colacho in his red and yellow suit jumps over the infants, the onlookers cheer him on.

A mass christening of sorts for the babies, it’s also considered an important cultural festivity which belongs to the local heritage of the town. After the Colacho has jumped over the babies, they are showered in rose petals and blessed by the local priest before being collected by their parents.