oddlight

The Painted Ones

Youngsters called "Pintados", translated as "Painted Ones", cover themselves in oil and ash to ward off evil spirits and parade through the village of San Nicolas de los Ranchos, 100kms east of Mexico.

This tradition, celebrated in the town located at the feet of Popocatépetl volcano (smoking hill, in Nahuatl language sees young people running in the streets to drive away the bad spirits before Carnival.

Every person must give some change to “the Painted ones” and if someone refuses, he or she will be embraced and stained with the painting from the Painted ones.