'Paso del fuego' [fire walking]. Las Móndidas festival

Of unknown origins. It is said that only the villagers can walk over the embers without getting burnt.

This ritual takes place every 23 June, on the night before San Juan, in the village of San Pedro Manrique in Soria. It consists of walking barefoot over the hot embers of a bonfire, which is meticulously prepared. It is lit at 9 pm using two thousand kilos of oak wood, which burns easily and does not form clumps, and at 11.30 pm the embers are smoothed out into a carpet-like path using poles called “hoguneros”. The young men of the village dance around the fire, and at midnight everything is ready to begin walking across the carpet. Generally, the ten or twelve firewalkers carry another person on their shoulders, as the extra weight helps keep them from burning, and they also make sure there are no ashes or hard objects in the embers.The Móndidas, women dressed in white, carrying wicker baskets and long breadsticks called “arbujuelos”, who are said to represent the ancient priestesses of the Celtiberian tribes, walk in a procession with their leader offering the first “arbujuelo” to the priest.