Since 1620 Castrillo de Murcia has celebrated Corpus Christi with a bizarre event that sees grown men dressed as the Devil leaping over helpless babies, an act that is known as El Colacho.

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 Sant�simo 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.

Does anyone have a video of goat being thrown from the top of a church, I would like to see that.

Obscure tradition

The origins of the village's tradition are unclear but one legend has it that a priest's goat whose milk fed the poor, fell from the bell tower and was saved by townspeople stretching out a blanket.

Despite a fall of 15 metres, the goat is not always hurt in the hurling ritual as villagers hold a tarpaulin underneath to catch it.

Animal rights activists still claim the practice is barbaric, pointing out that some goats do die and those which survive have gone through unnecessary fear.

Protests in 1992 persuaded the local governor to ban the toss and that year the goat was lowered on ropes. But a year later the tradition was resumed.

Spain's National Association of Animal Welfare and Protection had reported agreement had been reached to use a stuffed goat this year but it never materialized.