Throughout the day, waves of barebacked young men enter the circles, and then return to the crowd bleeding and triumphant.
Traditionally, these are simple processions, but last year an American evangelical group re-enacted the original Passion: a barefoot and barebacked young man, sobbing with emotion .
King Henry II of England, whose burst of temper led to the murder of Thomas a Becket, submitted to a barebacked scourging by the monks of Canterbury as part of his penance for .