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Explosive Bull Charges Through Tultepec for Mexico's National Fireworks Day

The crowd went wild as a pyrotechnic bull roared through the Mexican town of Tultepec on Wednesday, spraying a cascade of sparks into dancing revelers taking part in the San Juan de Dios festival. San Juan de Dios is the patron saint of fireworks makers, and Mexicans celebrate his memory with a huge fireworks festival running from March 8 to March 11. Festival goers naturally set off a huge display of all sorts of fireworks, large and small, but one of the most popular sorts are called toritos, which are huge bull-shaped contraptions on wheels, designed to be pulled through the streets while fireworks and sparks jet off and into the crowd. A fireworks explosion in nearby Mexico City had killed 61 people in 1988, and so a ban was placed on such explosives in the city and its surrounding urban areas - including Tultepec. Tultepec was one of Mexico's major fireworks-making locations and the area suffered economically from the prohibition. However, the Mexican National Pyrotechnic Festival was started in 1989 in an effort to draw back tourism to the municipality of Tultepec. So far, it looks like it could be working.