Evidence status: DOCUMENTED — deeper origins uncertain
Yes.
The babies are real.
The man dressed as the Devil is real.
And he really does run towards them and jump over the mattresses.
This is El Colacho, one of Spain's most extraordinary surviving local festivals.
The Short Answer
In the village of Castrillo de Murcia, in the province of Burgos, a costumed figure known as El Colacho leaps over babies born during the previous year as part of celebrations connected with Corpus Christi.
The Colacho represents evil or the Devil.
The broader drama presents evil being defeated and driven away by Christian faith and the Eucharist.
The baby-jumping element is popularly understood as protecting infants from evil or symbolically cleansing them of harmful influences.
The festival dates to the seventeenth century and is organised in connection with the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament of Minerva, established in 1621.
What historians cannot establish with confidence is exactly why the baby-jumping element first developed.
The ritual is old.
Its first explanation has not survived nearly as clearly.
What We Know
Castrillo de Murcia is a small village west of Burgos.
Every year around Corpus Christi, the village is transformed by a series of rituals centred on the Colacho.
He wears a striking costume and mask.
He carries a whip or horsehair implement.
He runs through the streets.
Residents insult and challenge him.
Altars are erected along the procession route.
And during the festival's most famous moment, infants born during the previous year are laid on mattresses.
The Colacho runs towards them.
And jumps.
Burgos provincial authorities describe the figure as representing the Devil, evil and heresy, which are ultimately overcome by the Christian people and the Eucharist.
How It Became a Habit
Corpus Christi historically produced some of Europe's most theatrical religious festivals.
Processions could include:
saints,
angels,
monsters,
dragons,
devils,
dances,
masks,
and dramatic confrontations between good and evil.
El Colacho fits comfortably within that world.
The Devil is not being honoured.
He is being mocked, chased, controlled and ultimately defeated.
That distinction matters.
Seen as a photograph of a man jumping over babies, the custom looks completely inexplicable.
Seen inside a seventeenth-century Catholic festival drama in which evil is driven away by sacred power, it becomes more intelligible.
The Story Everyone Tells
The popular shorthand says:
the Devil jumps over the babies to remove their original sin.
That explanation appears frequently in descriptions of the festival.
Another version says the Colacho carries away:
evil spirits,
bad luck,
illness,
or dangers that might otherwise threaten the children.
RTVE describes the modern local interpretation as the Colacho — representing evil — fleeing ahead of the religious procession and taking evil away from the infants.
The important thing is not to turn one popular explanation into formal Catholic doctrine.
What the Evidence Actually Says
The historical framework is strong.
The festival is linked with Corpus Christi.
The Brotherhood associated with it dates to the early seventeenth century.
The provincial government describes the Colacho as the personification of evil and heresy confronted by Christian faith.
What remains uncertain is the precise origin of the leap over babies.
Was it always part of the festival?
Did it develop from a wider protective ritual?
Was the original meaning exactly the same as the one participants give today?
Those questions are harder.
So:
DOCUMENTED: El Colacho has roots in seventeenth-century Castrillo de Murcia.
DOCUMENTED: It forms part of festivities surrounding Corpus Christi.
DOCUMENTED: The Colacho represents the Devil or evil within the festival drama.
DOCUMENTED: He jumps over babies born during the preceding year.
WELL SUPPORTED: The leap is understood locally as protecting infants and symbolically driving evil away.
PLAUSIBLE: Ideas concerning purification and original sin have become attached to the ritual.
UNKNOWN: The precise historical reason the baby jump was first introduced cannot be established.
Different Elsewhere
This is not a general Spanish custom.
Parents in Madrid, Málaga or Barcelona do not routinely lay babies in the street for devils to jump over.
It belongs specifically to Castrillo de Murcia and its local community.
That distinction matters because unusual regional customs are often described online as though they represent an entire country.
They do not.
Spain contains thousands of local religious and secular festivals.
El Colacho is one extremely distinctive example.
Why It Stuck
Because local traditions do not survive four centuries simply by being unusual.
They survive because communities decide that they matter.
RTVE interviewed residents whose families have participated across generations and who speak of bringing their own children into the festival as a continuation of family and village identity.
To an outsider, the unforgettable image is the jump.
To the village, the larger story is continuity.
A baby joins the community.
The old ritual is performed again.
And another generation becomes part of Castrillo de Murcia's strange, spectacular inheritance.
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Sources & Further Reading
Diputación Provincial de Burgos — Fiesta del Colacho — official provincial description of the festival, its seventeenth-century roots and religious symbolism.
RTVE — El Colacho in Castrillo de Murcia — contemporary account of the festival, baby jump and local interpretation of the ritual.
El País — “El salto del Colacho” — description of the Corpus festival and Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament.
Last checked: 19 September 2026