During the festival, red and yellow-masked “devils” run through the streets hurling insults at villagers and whipping them with a horsetail attached to a stick. When drums announce the arrival of the black-clad atabalero, pious men who who have come to drive out evil, el salto del Colacho—the flight of the devil—begins.
In a heart-stopping display, babies born during the previous year are laid on mattresses in the street while the costumed men leap over them. A baptism of sorts, it is believed that the devil absorbs the sins of the babies, and affords them protection from disease and misfortune. Spectators lining the streets will also berate Colacho in order to ward off their own bad luck for the upcoming year. Afterwards, the babies are sprinkled with rose petals and promptly reclaimed by their parents.
