El Colacho: Spain’s Baby-Jumping Ritual That’s Equal Parts Terrifying and Touching

In the small village of Castrillo de Murcia in northern Spain, something utterly bizarre happens every June. Men dressed as the devil (I’m talking flame-colored jumpsuits and grotesque masks) run through the streets and leap over rows of actual human babies. Yes, actual newborns. And no, this is not some sort of viral TikTok challenge. It’s a 400-year-old tradition that, for reasons no one can entirely agree on, still happens every single year. They call it El Colacho. So, let’s learn a little bit more about this unusual tradition.

A Devil, a Jump, and a Blessing?

El Colacho is part of the Corpus Christi celebrations, a Catholic festival that usually involves solemn processions and wafer blessings. But in Castrillo de Murcia, things took a detour. A very physical detour.

Here, the main character is El Colacho, a man playing the devil, who tears through the village streets chasing “good” spirits and whipping at people with horsehair cords. And then, at the center of it all, there are the babies. Dozens of them lay out in neat rows on cushions, waiting. Their parents and neighbors gather around, watching as the devil takes a running start and, without breaking stride, leaps over each row.

The idea? That the jump cleanses the babies of original sin, protects them from illness and evil, and sets them up for a life of good luck. It’s part exorcism, part community ritual, and part… well, circus act.

No Vatican Stamp Required

You might assume that such a ritual must have deep roots in the Catholic Church. You’d be wrong. In fact, the Vatican has tried (gently) to distance itself from the practice, urging families to stick to more traditional baptisms — you know, the ones that don’t involve airborne devils.

But for locals, El Colacho isn’t about religious orthodoxy. It’s about heritage, it’s something their grandparents did, and their grandparents before them. It’s not a theological statement, it’s cultural memory, wrapped in pageantry and adrenaline.

There’s also something deeply human about the whole thing. It’s a ritual about protection. About channeling chaos into something visible, beatable, even jumpable. The devil may be flying through the air, but the hope underneath it all is simple: that these babies will be safe.

And Somehow… It’s Safe?

Let’s get the obvious question out of the way: has anyone ever been hurt? Somehow, miraculously, no serious injuries have been reported. The “devil” is always a trained adult chosen from the local brotherhood that organizes the event. These men don’t drink beforehand. They don’t improvise. They rehearse, and they take their jumps seriously, because they know what’s at stake.

From the outside, El Colacho looks like a medieval fever dream. But so do a lot of rituals when you’re not part of them. What’s more interesting is why it still happens. Because we all do things that seem irrational when you zoom out. We throw coins into fountains, we kiss lucky charms, we knock on wood. El Colacho just happens to involve a devil and a bit more cardio.