The celebration of the night of San Juan is a special festival because it is the eve of San Juan, which within Christendom means the birth of San Juan Bautista on June 24. But it is much more because it represents the beginning of summer. Let’s see what its meaning is and why this celebration takes place.
This corresponds, for years, with the arrival of the summer solstice. This is why this night is celebrated in many autonomous communities with festivities, festivals, rituals and bonfires, since fire is one of the key representations on this night.
What is its origin and meaning?
We must think that June 21 is when the summer solstice arrives, and the beginning of this season on the calendar. Here begins the origin of this festival from its most pagan sense that was attributed to the Gods who were thanked for the arrival of this new season of the year.
That tonight there are bonfires in many communities, household goods are burned and rituals are done as renewal, leaving behind the bad is related to this pagan origin . Well, at the beginning of summer, they tried to drive away evil spirits and worship the sun.
From the Christian sense, as we have seen, Saint John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24, but it is not by chance that fire is the protagonist of the celebrations. Thus, Zacarías, father of Saint John the Baptist, is said to have lit several bonfires to notify the neighbors of his wife’s pregnancy.
In different parts of the world
Not only do they take place in various parts of Spain, such as Catalonia, Valencia or Galicia, among others, but the night of San Juan is also celebrated in England , Ireland, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, in South America, in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
Thus and it depends on the autonomous community where it is celebrated, in Spain, traditions change, although fire or pyrotechnics are always central axes of a magical night where many invoke the spirits so that their lives change.
Bonfires mean that negative things have to be burned to make way for a new stage. Firecrackers are also prominent these days, so caution is called for so that there are no problems.
