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The 2016 Jarramplas Festival (18 photos)

Every January, on Saint Sebastian Day, the streets of Piornal, Spain, fill with residents armed with turnips, seeking to punish the Jarramplas. The Jarramplas is a devil-like character portrayed by a man wearing a costume made from colorful strips of fabric, a frightening mask, and body armor underneath. In a centuries-old tradition, he walks the streets and beats a drum while residents throw turnips at him as a punishment for stealing cattle. The exact origin of the festival are not known, various theories exist from the mythological punishment of Caco by Hercules, to a cattle thief ridiculed and expelled by his neighbors.

People throw turnips at the Jarramplas as he makes his way through the streets beating his drum, during the Jarramplas festival in Piornal, Spain, on January 20, 2016. Hundreds of people were running through the streets of a tiny town in southwestern Spain, chasing a fancy-dressed, beast-like figure and pelting it with turnips. (Francisco Seco / AP)
http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/01/the-2016-jarramplas-festival/425115/