Saint John´s eve: bonefires and purification

#San Juan's night is full of #bonfires, fireworks, music, dancing, sardines and bread. It's the welcome to summer, and its celebration takes place during the shortest night of the year.

Many towns, cities or villages celebrate this first Summer Fiesta. All the celebrations share some things in common, yet each also has its peculiarity.

In cities and towns, particularly those close to the sea, the celebration is very important. Lalín, in Galicia, celebrates O Corpiño, during which people touch an image to botar fora o meigallo, to take out bad things. In Alicante's Fogueres de Sant Joan, two hundreds bonfires burn all over the city during the night. In Palamós and Roses (Girona), fireworks and bonfires are made on the beach, while in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the people build bonfires of waste products, and after the burn, bathe in the sea, which they have filled with fruits and flowers.

Bonfires, fire and water are the protagonists of the night. Men and women, young people and children, all dedicate their days and afternoons to the preparation of bonfires. According to tradition, if people jump three times over a bonfire on San Juan's night, they will be cleansed and purified, and their problems burned away.

Another tradition, especially for women, requires the women of the house to prepare perfumed water combining the scents of seven plants - among them rosemary, roses and laurel - and to bathe or wash their faces in the water, again to purify themselves for the new season.

The spiritual meaning and ritual: Many people go in the sea too at midnight and before and the idea is that this is a time of purification when you are washed clean by the waters. The bonfires are something else which purifies by burning away all that is unwanted. You can ask for anythoing you wish for that night..... light up a small candle and pray .

Flowers are often put on the beach and cast into the sea. Candles and torches of fire are lit.

Thank you to www.donquijote.org for this article http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/society/holidays/sanjuan