1/25/2005: Saint Anthony's purification ritual

Not much information is available on this annual festival in the village of Vilanova d'Alcolea near Castellon, Spain. The official caption suggests that Saint Anthony is the patron saint of animals and this is the "purification ceremony" section of the festival on his official Day.

I'm not sure how a horse is purified by jumping through fire; a good round of antibiotics and better stall maintenance would be much more effective. And I'm not sure why the patron saint of animals winds up putting his beasts into a big bonfire. Seems like an effective patron saint would score a better contract, such as the Hindus have done for the cows, or the Buddhists for all critters in general.

A round of severe googling turned up very little detail, other than Anthony's appearance at the same time in Sicily. These festivals sound like a great time, I want one:

Ancient tradition has it that the saint, like Prometheus, stole into hell and brought back fire, so naturally the festivities revolve around a bonfire. Each town places different herbs and fruits atop the blaze, creating a unique aroma. Women emerge from their homes bearing sweets and dark fruity loaves of pane nigheddu, while men pass around bottles of wine and aquavit.

Wow! I, personally, am all in favor of this kind of thing. I can taste the pane nigheddu now! I'm not sure about the community bottles, as I just got over a bout of illness, you know, wouldn't want another round of that.

c'mon everybody! "horse nuts roasting on an open fire, dipshits making your equine roast"

Looks like something akin to driving the animals 'twixt the balefires at Beltane (May Day, to the rest of you non-Pagans).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane

Note that they have the horse's mane all bundled up in flowers. Presumably they did the same for the critter's tail, too. I hope that's to keep it from getting torched.

It makes me feel better about this to see the horse has a live human rider, although he could be the type that participates in the Taming of the Bulls that we saw a few days ago

Just another party plagarized from the pagans right?

Which Anthony?

Saint Anthony of Padua (this is the "popular" one ... the Lost Things guy)

Saint Anthony of the Desert

(Oh man. there are actually 31 Saint Anthonies ... That's too much typing. Here's a list of patron saints, by name. )

Anthony of Padua and Anthony the Abbott both have associations to animals.

It'd be cool on video.
Odds are: this guy busts his ass.
Or either he's a damn good rider.
Eat your heart out, Junior Bonner.......

All in favor of riding Bush through flames on horseback, say "aye"!

I'm pretty sure that these people are taking the words "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" in an entirely different way than it was meant.

The PETA people must be on strike, thank goodness.
If you'll notice, the horse isn't being ridden through the blaze.
It's being led (or should I say forced) through it.
The guy "leading" him doesn't really seem to be having a blast either.
The rider kooks as if to be saying: Faster, you sluggish bastard!
[quote] "People do do the strangest things"[quote]

He could wear a 10 gallon Stetson...filled with 10 gallons of liquid oxygen, perhaps.

Sure, it's already filled with 10 gallons of air.

You're mistaking that heavy duty cylinder on his shoulders as a high pressure cylinder instead of the high vacuum cylinder that it is.

I love how people ripped on the Muslims for killing animals and eating them, but no one seems that bent out of shape about a horse being forcibly led through a bonfire.

It's not gross looking. In fact, it looks sort of cool.

I wonder how they choose the horse, or if it's the same one every year?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAdMoNKEY I love how people ripped on the Muslims for killing animals and eating them, but no one seems that bent out of shape about a horse being forcibly led through a bonfire.

that's because we know that muslims are just filty animals, not real people. it wouldn't do to rip on people that are "like us" now would it?

*thick sarcasm*

So you're all saying that's a real/live horse?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAdMoNKEY I love how people ripped on the Muslims for killing animals and eating them, but no one seems that bent out of shape about a horse being forcibly led through a bonfire.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce That's because he/she is not being injured and will have great stories to tell at the stable. Kind of like skydiving or bungee jumping.

I believe your right, but I don't think the horse was injured and that's the big difference.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce I believe your right, but I don't think the horse was injured and that's the big difference.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce I believe your right, but I don't think the horse was injured and that's the big difference.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce I believe your right, but I don't think the horse was injured and that's the big difference.

This *is* a purification ritual, after all. Maybe the horse's next stop is the dog food factory, and this is just to make sure it is kosher or something?