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Ponte de Lima, Portugal, June 6, 2007—A villager gets thrown by a stampeding bull in the center of the historic riverside town of Ponte de Lima.

As part of the annual "Vacas das Cordas" celebrations, which stretch back 350 years, town residents chain a bull to the church, pour wine on it, and then release it into the streets.

The celebration commemorates the time when Christians turned a pagan temple dedicated to a goddess of cows into a church.

Bull running is a popular tradition in neighboring Spain, where every July thousands of people flock to Pamplona to participate in that city's famous bull-running fiesta.

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