Playing with fire

The midwinter feast of St John the Baptist on 24th June (yes, more than a month ago) is celebrated throughout the country with a huge range of games and traditions. Margaret Hebblethwaite's Bradt guidebook has an exhaustive list; I'll quote a few highlights:

"paila jeherei - trying to remove a coin stuck with grease on the back of a frying pan by licking it"
"climbing the greasy pole, or yvyra syi (Guarani 'tree slippery'), in search of a bag of goodies tied at the top"
"gallo ñemongaru" - a cock is starved for 24 hours and then released in the middle of a circle of girls with maize in their hands. The one the cock eats from first will get married that year.

culminating in the What-is-this-Health-and-Safety-you-speak-of FIRE GAMES:

"kicking around a pelota tata (Spanish 'ball', Guarani 'fire') - a ball made out of cloth, soaked in kerosene and set alight. The game is to kick it directly at your friends, who run away screaming."
"toro kandil (Spanish 'bull torch')...One or two people get under a cloth representing a bull, the horns of which are set alight, and then they charge at other people, who run away screaming."
"undas kai" (Spanish 'Judas', Guarani 'burn')" - the burning of a straw effigy of an unpopular figure (could be a politician or the footballer who made Paraguay lose against Argentina) hung by the neck from a gallows. "The figure has been previously drenched in kerosene and may be stuffed with explosive fireworks". 
"the custom of walking barefoot across the glowing embers of the remains of the bonfire...According to legend, the feet are protected from burns if you do this on the night of San Juan. I have seen it done and there were no burns."

Santa Maria's festival was sadly rained off, but the kids from across the road (including the four-year-old) did their own pelota tata in the street.