01:15Venezuela: Dancing devils fill Naiguata in age-old festival of 'Good Vs Evil'
Thousands of people in devil costumes streamed through the town of Naiguata in Venezuela's state of Vargas, Thursday. The participants in the festivities wait for hours in the blazing sun before prostrating in front of the town's church, praying for a miracle and paying penance.
The tradition has run for hundreds of years and is meant to symbolise the victory of good over evil, where devils have to repent and submit to the power of goodness and God. The symbology is a mixture of paganism and Christianity, where animal costumes and the Christian cross mesh.
The practice is believed to have started in Spain as ritual to convert pagans to Christianity. Its importation and use in Venezuela purportedly dates back to slavery, where the festival was employed once more to spread the Christian faith.
01:15Thousands of people in devil costumes streamed through the town of Naiguata in Venezuela's state of Vargas, Thursday. The participants in the festivities wait for hours in the blazing sun before prostrating in front of the town's church, praying for a miracle and paying penance.
The tradition has run for hundreds of years and is meant to symbolise the victory of good over evil, where devils have to repent and submit to the power of goodness and God. The symbology is a mixture of paganism and Christianity, where animal costumes and the Christian cross mesh.
The practice is believed to have started in Spain as ritual to convert pagans to Christianity. Its importation and use in Venezuela purportedly dates back to slavery, where the festival was employed once more to spread the Christian faith.