until you realise it is the celebration of Lent, as practised by the small Mexican town of San Juan de la Vega, that honors its
namesake saint with a loud tradition that has come to be known as the Festival
of Exploding Hammers, why? Well according to one local story, Juan de la Vega,
a wealthy miner and rancher, was aided by San Juan Bautista (Saint John the
Baptist) to recover gold stolen by bandits is one of the more popular stories, and residents came up
with the exploding hammers to loudly commemorate their victory over the outlaws, the
event is celebrated on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras),when the young boys of San Juan
de la Vega head out to a designated place on the edge of town, bringing with
them pouches of home-made explosives and long-handled sledgehammers, on the big
day of the festival, those brave enough to take part in the celebration will
bang their sledgehammers against rail beams causing explosions strong enough to
cause serious injuries,
the helmet camera experiment in the above video did not go as planned, “We do this out of devotion,” one local told WSJ reporters. “You have faith in a saint and you must
demonstrate that”, apparently at first the explosive charges were small, but over the years the explosives have been getting bigger and bigger,
the above video takes a more detailed in depth look at the reasons behind the tradition, all I know is that there is not a hammer with a long enough handle for me!
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