Speaking of special days, months, years, etc

In my earlier post today I admitted to nearly forgetting to mention "Stop Blaming White People" month, which ends tomorrow. I think I should be forgiven for that near-omission. There are so many bogus and useless days, months and years to celebrate, that's it's hard to keep track of them all.

And then there are the festivals. Nearly every weekend sees an ethnic festival of some kind going on in 100s of cities across the land. Then you have the harvest festivals, spring festivals (e.g. Groundhog Day, mentioned here earlier this month), national independence festivals, religious festivals, and on and on and on. One that I hadn't heard of until I saw this report in Metro News (UK), is Mexico's not-very-famous Exploding Hammer Festival.

The event, which takes place every February, involves people attaching a mix of sulpher and chlorate to the ends of sledge hammers. They they smash the hammers against rail beams, making the substance explode and send up massive clouds of smoke. Like this.

This unusual festival, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, is held in the small town of San Juan de la Vega. San Juan, so the story goes, was the victim of bandits who made off with his gold. (Where the gold came from, no-one knows.) St John the Baptist helped recover the gold, thus becoming a Mexican Robin Hood. What this has to do with exploding hammers is unclear, but never mind.

As you can see, some of the hammerers are flung backwards by the force of the explosion. One man hurt his leg in the blast and had to be carried off on a stretcher. Others were less seriously injured, bringing the total to 43 hurt. Assuredly, God and Saint John know their devotion.