Balls of Fire Light Up El Salvador's Night Sky
- 13 years ago
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No, it's not a meteor shower, but a Salvadoran annual ritual. Residents hurl fireballs at eachother, to commemorate a volcanic eruption in the 1920s that devastated their town. Let's take a look.
Fireballs blazon the sky in Nejapa, El Salvador. Local residents gather every August 31 to hurl fireballs in honor of a huge volcanic eruption in 1922. The eruption forced all of the residents to abandon the town.
[Erik Salazar, Resident]:
"In this tradition we remember the eruption of this volcano in Salvador in 1922, we remember how the volcano in this time threw fireballs at the inhabitants of Nixapa (now Nejapa) who fled from the fire. So every year we remember this with our famous festival and fireballs."
Local churches and their worshippers have embraced the tradition. They say the hot lava from the volcano was the local Christian Saint Jeronimo fighting the devil with balls of fire.
Young men throw fiery, gasoline-soaked rags at one another in the streets.
The fireball hurling is meant to remember the old town which was destroyed in the battle.
The festivities have been going on for over a decade.
Authorities fear the festival might one day get out of hand, basically because there are no rules.
But despite the apparent dangers, few serious injuries have been reported so far.
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No, it's not a meteor shower, but a Salvadoran annual ritual. Residents hurl fireballs at eachother, to commemorate a volcanic eruption in the 1920s that devastated their town. Let's take a look.
Fireballs blazon the sky in Nejapa, El Salvador. Local residents gather every August 31 to hurl fireballs in honor of a huge volcanic eruption in 1922. The eruption forced all of the residents to abandon the town.
[Erik Salazar, Resident]:
"In this tradition we remember the eruption of this volcano in Salvador in 1922, we remember how the volcano in this time threw fireballs at the inhabitants of Nixapa (now Nejapa) who fled from the fire. So every year we remember this with our famous festival and fireballs."
Local churches and their worshippers have embraced the tradition. They say the hot lava from the volcano was the local Christian Saint Jeronimo fighting the devil with balls of fire.
Young men throw fiery, gasoline-soaked rags at one another in the streets.
The fireball hurling is meant to remember the old town which was destroyed in the battle.
The festivities have been going on for over a decade.
Authorities fear the festival might one day get out of hand, basically because there are no rules.
But despite the apparent dangers, few serious injuries have been reported so far.