Most Dangerous Selfie Ever: Man Snaps Pic While Running with the Bulls in Pamplona
Running with the bulls has become a centuries-old tradition, beginning in Spain. And now, the tradition has been blasted into the 21st century when a man staked his claim as taking "the most dangerous selfie ever" by snapping a pic of himself running with the bulls!
According to New Zealand's Stuff Magazine, the man -- who only identified himself as Christian -- staked his claim as taking "the most dangerous selfie ever" when he took part in the Great Bull Run in Baytown, Texas, on Jan. 25. He was recording the chase on his iPhone.
According to the Great Bull Run's website, the Great Bull Run wants its participants "to experience the rush of a lifetime" as they run away from over 24 bulls down a 400 meter track. This year, the event drew over 3500 participants. But in an interesting bit of meta-popularity, it wasn't the actual selfie taken by Christian that created the buzz all over the Internet -- it was the photo of Christian taking the selfie of himself that created the buzz!
According to Ireland's Independent, the spectator who snapped the photo uploaded it to the popular site Reddit, where it reached the front page and became the latest Net-phenom.
The Running of the Bulls (in Spanish encierro, from the verb encerrar, to fence in, to lock/shut up, to pen) is a practice that involves running in front of a small group of bulls (typically a dozen) that have been let loose on a course of a sectioned-off subset of a town's streets. The most famous running of the bulls is that of the seven-day festival of Sanfermines in honour of Saint Fermin in Pamplona, although they are held in towns and villages across Spain, Portugal, in some cities in Mexico, in San Jose Festival held in Trujillo, Peru, Mesquite, Nevada, and southern France during the summer.
The history of the running in front of bulls is not completely clear. It started when bullfighting became a popular pastime, and many bullrings were built. The only way to get the bulls from the corral to the bullring was by running them through the streets to the ring. Eventually, people started running with the bulls. As every year passed, this became more and more popular, and has grown into this extremely important festival.
Check out Christian's video of him running with the bulls below.