El Toro de Fuego

It's been years since I last saw this kind of spectacle in the villages, but this past Saturday, the neighbors of Alija brought it back as a finishing touch to an afternoon of festivities marking the beginning of the carnival. Supposedly of Iberian origin, this is a pretty common tradition in villages in this area. And while they're not real bulls, just someone from the town, they do carry on their shoulders and iron structure shaped like a bull, complete with sparklers that ignite one after the other. While the sparklers are lit, the guy runs around the square, weaving between the people and creating