Adventures in Spanish 2013: Spanish Encounters: Noche de San Juan

Picture this: night time, full moon, 500 000 people on a beach, and hundreds of small fires. What do you think happens at midnight?

Spain is a land of festivals. Some are for each region, others celebrated all over the country.
One festival famous in Alicante (east coast) is the Noche de San Juan. This festival is basically a summer solstice festival, which was originally celebrated on 21 or 22 June each year, which in the northern hemisphere is the longest day of the year. It is also the official start of summer in Spain. However, the Saint Day of St John the Baptist (not to be confused with St John the Apostle) is on 24 June. Hence, the original pagan summer solstice festival was moved to the night of 23 June and became known as the Noche de San Juan (Night of St John).

The original pagan festival was celebrated to "give strength to the sun" as the people noticed that after this day, the sun began to lose strength, little by little every day. It was celebrated with fires and normally held near water, either the sea or the local river. Traditionally, the young men jumped over the fire at midnight (not really sure why) and this tradition continues today. However, now women can jump the fire as well. Today it is thought that if you make a wish for the coming year then jump the fire, the wish will come true. Another variation is first running into the sea and jumping waves, then running back and jumping the fire. For women, if they want to have a son / daughter, they have to jump 10 waves. There is lots of these "traditions / superstitions" in Spain and probably many other countries as well.

So last night was the Noche de San Juan. Most of Valencia it seems heads to the beach in groups of friends and family etc, light a smallish fire, sing, play music, chat etc and wait until midnight. The foreigners tend to just get drunk. At midnight, the majority rush into the sea, run back and jump the fire. Depending on how big the fire is or how much people have had to drink, this is either a safe or dangerous activity. They also light big paper style lanterns that float up into the sky. Very pretty. I take it that the majority of people stay on the beach all night. As it is a work day the next morning, I'm not sure how many make it to school / work etc and I'm sure productivity would be very low.

I joined a largish group of "extranjeros" (foreigners) and ventured out around 10 pm. My two English friends from school and I shared some Sangria and soaked up the atmosphere and generally chatted to whoever was interested. I managed to make it home by 3 am and got 3 hours sleep before having to get up and go to school. Lucky we are doing revision this week or I wouldn't have been able to manage any Spanish! Conversation class was a little challenging as there were only two of us and we both had been celebrating Noche de San Juan. Hopefully tomorrow we will have caught up on our sleep.

I've included some photos which I admit aren't great given they were hand-held shots taken at night, but I think you'll get the idea.