Dangerous and deadly festival of "Exploding hammers" in Mexico
Posted on Jan 17, 2020
Dangerous and deadly festival of "Exploding hammers" in Mexico
Mexico: This is the small Mexican town of San Juan de la Vega, where every year, in the last week of February, there is a festival in which locals pour heavy hammers, explosives on which they explode and with a loud explosion, black and white smoke spreads all over.
By the way, the festival is 300 years old but locals have different opinions about its origin. Some say that three centuries ago, the owner of the mine and a rich man in the area had plenty of gold. One day the robbers robbed him of all the gold, and with the help of the local priest San Juan Batista, the rich man had recovered his gold from the robbers. From that day the town was also named after Pastor San Juan, and every year a "festival of exploding hammers" was commemorated in memory of the incident.
According to another story, "San Juanito" was the eldest pastor of the town who was himself a robber. But like Robin Hood, he used to rob the rich and local bandits and distribute all the booty to the poor. In the last week of February, there was a decisive battle between San Juanito and the local robbers, in which the robbers were defeated so that they would not be able to raise their head again.
The festival is commemorated in memory of the incident because Pastor San Juanito had cut off explosives with long hammers on rocks to fight the robbers, causing dozens of robbers and bandits to be injured and thus the priest against them. The victory was found.
The same goes for the festival of explosive hammers: The participants of this festival carry homemade ammunition (explosives) in long-haul hammers and bags to the empty grounds on the outskirts of the village. Then some of these bags are taken in ammunition and placed on the steel bars in the form of piles.
Then, at the last and most dangerous stage, brave men pour long-range hammers with full force on these cords. But this step is so dangerous that a hammer hit can cause serious injury… and sometimes even death. In addition, people standing at a distance can also be injured.
For this reason, the Mexican government banned the festival for many years. Of course, the festival has resumed in recent years, but every year, special arrangements are made to protect attendees and spectators so that no one is injured.
