A Tradition Unlike Any Other

The festival takes place on the same day every year — August 31 —and residents gather around to commemorate the eruption of a volcano in 1922 that forced all of the residents of the town to flee. To represent the disaster, locals throw ‘fire balls’ at one another.

 

Though this dangerous, yet planned, fire fight has taken place for over a decade now without any rules or

restrictions, few serious injuries have been reported. The festival has even been given a religious slant by the church, who claim that the volcanic eruption was the embodiment of the local Christian saint, Saint Jeronimo, who was driving the devil from the town with fireballs.

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The citizens of small town Nejapa will continue to hold their
not-so-traditional custom of fireball-throwing in remembrance
of the volcano that once changed their world.