Horses leapt through flames in a Spanish tradition performed this week in honor of St. Anthony.
Dedicated to the patron saint of animals, “Las Luminarias” finds San Bartolomé de Pinares — a village of some 500 people about 50 miles outside Madrid — engaged in a centuries-old rite that has since become an outdoor festival, with riders often applying flame-retardant tapes and glazes to their horses.
The animals, according to locals, are “rarely if ever injured,” the Associated Press wrote, though animal rights groups have criticized the ritual.
The practice began after an unknown illness affected San Bartolomé’s livestock; smoke and fire, it was believed, purified and protected the animals for the coming year.