Archangel Michael celebration, Mantamados, Lesvos, Battle for the Bull's Tongue

... Most of the people who crowd to whitness the animal sacrificed and get some blood, are Romas. Having come from all over Greece, they told me that they feel the Archangel very close to them. I couldn't help but feeling like the existence of the Archangel, the sacrifice and the blood holds something very important for them, something which is in their practical magic stuff which with they live. Another part of the animal which they consider to have supernatural power is the tongue. So they hurry around the table were the poor man is trying to slice the tongue in parts for everyone, without slicing some stray fingers too...(continued in the next post)