Hundreds of people joined the annual religious snakes' procession in the Italian village of Cocullo.
The Serpent Festival, or Festa dei Serpari, honours patron San Domenico di Sora - Saint Dominic, a Benedictine monk, perceived to be a healer of tooth pain and protector from reptile poison in a area where, in the Middle Age, snakes were very dangerous.
After the celebration of the Holy Mass, the snakes were blessed and draped around the Saint's statue, which was paraded across the mountainous village's narrow streets to be release into the wild the day after.
