El Colacho (Baby Jumping Festival)

In a tiny Castilian village, men dressed as devils sprint down the street and leap clean over rows of babies born that year, laid out on mattresses by their families - a centuries-old ritual believed to cleanse the infants of original sin and evil spirits. It looks alarming and is, by all local accounts, taken extremely seriously and executed with real care. One of the stranger, more tender traditions you'll find anywhere in Europe.