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St John's Eve festival in Spain (La Noche de San Juan)
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Saint John's Eve (Jun 23) has been celebrated with bonfires all across Celtic Europe for thousands of years. Ireland and Spain are two of the countries with a strongest tradition there. The festivity later spread to America, with particular relevance today in Brazil and Puerto Rico. This festival is also called Midsummer Festival, Summer Solstice Festival or in some countries like Spain, "The Night of Saint John".
It is a magical night, the shortest night in the year (for the northern hemisphere), but also the night when enchantments are stronger and love potions most effective. Celebrations vary among different countries, but most of them still share its original feature in common: Fire (representing the sun). This video explains how St John's Eve is celebrated in Spain.
Midsummer's Eve, the solstice, an ancient pagan festival. But how is it celebrated today? In England, they try and pull down Stonehenge [?!]; in France they play music in the streets till dawn; and in Spain, they hit the beach. Every beach in the country fills with people, young and old, locals and tourists alike, to light fires, swim in the sea and simply have fun.
The party has 5000 years of history. It goes back to the pagan sun worship, when they feared that when the days got shorter, the sun would never come back. The tradition of jumping over a fire representative of the sun, continues today. Fire ++++ are symbolic of chasing out the demons of darkness.
23rd of June, 2006, and in Fuengirola, Costa del Sol, Spain, the party is just beginning. It's a chance to get together with friends and take in the atmosphere while enjoying one of the best things about this region of Spain, the climate.
So, how do you join in "San Juan"?
STEP 1- Pull together some pallets to make a fire.
STEP 2- Start a barbecue.
STEP 3- Make sure you've got plenty of ice in the cooler box, it's a long night.
And STEP 4- Make your own music or just see what's on.
"San Juan" is actually "John the Baptist", that's why it's traditional to jump in the sea at midnight to wash away the year's sins, although these days most people do so just to cool down or sober up.
So what better place to go to than Spain to follow an ancient tradition? If you are lost for something to do next to Midsummer's Eve, get down to the beach in Fuengirola, join the party and make a pagan of yourself.
Report mistakesEVE= The day or the night before a special day. For example, Christmas day is Dec 25, and Christmas Eve is Dec 24. New Year's Eve is the night before New Year's Day, and St John's Eve is the night before St John's Day.
SOLSTICE= Either of two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator so we have a summer solstice and a winter solstice.
ANCIENT= /eɪnʃənt/ hundreds or thousands of years old.
PAGAN= /peɪgənt/ Related to pre-Christian believes. Polytheistic religions as opposed to monotheistic religions. [polytheistic means "many gods" and "monotheistic" just one God]
THEY TRY AND PULL DOWN STONEHENGE= Stonehenge is an ancient megalithic construction from prehistoric times in southern England. Since it is believed to have been used for astronomical purposes, many people in modern times celebrated (until banned) the solstices there. But I just probably got the whole sentence wrong or they simply mean that many people go there.
DAWN= /dɔ:n/ The time when the sun rises and day begins.
THEY HIT THE BEACH= (col.) They go to the beach. In colloquial English, if you hit a place, you go there.
(maybe you can remember a famous old song saying: hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more. Hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more)
IT GOES BACK TO= We can use this phrase to signal when something started for the first time, implying that it continues today:
- Christianity goes back some 2000 years to the 1st century.
- Computers go back to the mid-20th century. (they were invented at that time and still exist)
SUN WORSHIP= The act of worshipping the sun. If you worship the sun, you consider it a god and you pray to it. So the sentence "it goes back to the pagan sun worship" means that this celebration comes from the times when the sun was worshipped by pagans.
A FIRE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SUN= A fire used as a symbol of the sun.
CHASING OUT= If you chase something out, you run after it in an aggressive way to make it go away. [Here it is used in the -ING form because after prepositions and conjunctions the verb must be in the -ing form]
DEMOND= Evil spirits.
A CHANCE= An opportunity.
TAKE IN THE ATMOSPHERE= Get into the atmosphere / Understand the atmosphere.
The ATMOSPHERE is used to mean everything happening around you, including the activities, the sounds, the feelings, the temperature, the people, etc.
CLIMATE= /klaɪmɪt/ (formal word) Weather.
JOIN IN= Participate in.
PALLETS= Wooden frames used for transporting piles of goods (see picture)
PLENTY= A lot and more than enough.
COOLER BOX= Ice box = An insulated thermo box with ice inside used to keep things cold for some hours. (see picture)
IT'S A LONG NIGHT= Actually, St John's Night is the shortest one in the year, but when we san "it's a long night", or "it's going to be a long night" we mean that we're going to stay awake for a long time, or maybe all the night, so it's going to feel much longer than usual (because when we're sleeping time stops).
WHAT'S ON= What activities and events are happening in the place.
JOHN THE BAPTIST= The first Christian saint, from Palestine, Jesus' cousin. He received that name because he baptised people, including Jesus himself. To baptise is to pour some water over a person's head (or submerge them into water) as a symbol of purification and beginning a new life. Christians use baptism to admit new members to their community.
SINS= Bad actions. A sin is a transgression of a religious or moral law, especially when deliberate.
COOL DOWN= Reduce temperature.
SOBER UP= The adjective SOBER is the opposite to DRUNK. The verb to SOBER UP means to do something to become sober when you have drunk a lot of alcohol. If you feel drunk or tipsy from drinking alcohol and you go into the sea, the cool water will make you sober, you'll sober up.
SO WHAT BETTER PLACE TO GO TO THAN SPAIN= Spain is the best place to go.
IF YOU ARE LOST FOR SOMETHING TO DO= If you don't know what to do.
NEXT TO MIDSUMMER'S EVE= At about that time. In those days.
GET DOWN TO THE BEACH= Come to the beach.
MAKE A PAGAN OF YOURSELF= Become a pagan. Since the bonfires celebration is a very ancient pagan tradition, if you participate in this festival you are doing what pagans did in the past so you become a little bit of a pagan, just in the same way as you would become Italian if you eat pizza or Chinese if you eat with chopsticks.
