07/06/2021
🔥Contdown started for San Juan or the Night of the Fire!🔥 It's one of my favorite celebrations of the year!
It has become a festival 🥳 with very marked and symbolic elements and customs that, although each one lives in his own way, always involve fire as a purifying element. Some also add the midnight baths, the herbs of San Juan, the songs, the dance or the cures and other magical rituals. On the night of June 23 to 24, the city is filled with bonfires and people gather on the beaches to celebrate the summer solstice, and the shortest night of the year (or the longest day). It's believed that a gate opens between the magical and the real world on that night and that the spells, wishes or rituals that are carried out will be fulfilled. All witchcraft is welcome in San Juan Night. It's a night full of healing powers. The flames burn the bad, howl the bad spirits and renew the energies to start with the new. Fireworks, bonfires and firecrackers 💥 are undoubtedly the stars of the night.
Fun facts:
🔸Already in the 18th century, laws were already enacted that intended to put a stop to fireworks and bonfires within the city.But the party has continued until today despite the prohibitions and restrictions.
🔹Water, that night, is considered full of healing powers. In the past, baths at midnight were an almost obligatory ritual. In places on the coast, this bath continues to be very common, either because of the propitiatory health beliefs, or because the temperature, the environment and the party continue in the sea.
🔸The night of San Juan doesn't have a unique party in Barcelona, but, simultaneously, each neighborhood organizes its own bonfires and festivals.
🔹It is a pagan festival that combines many elements: ritual baths, popular dinners, fireworks with devils and beasts, orchestras and musical groups that make the public dance, and so on.
🔸The most traditional delicacy of this festivity is the Coca de San Juan, which currently comes in many varieties: there are fruit, pine nuts, pork rinds and there are stuffed with cream or cream. Coca de San Juan must be twice as long as it is wide.
And you, how you are going to celebrate the night of San Juan?
