A Coruña, Jun 24 (EFE).- Magic and fire have once again flooded this San Juan A Coruña on the shortest and most special night of the year, to which more than 150,000 people have joined.
“For San Juan, the sardine dips the bread”, goes the popular saying that, once again, has come true in A Coruña and throughout Galicia, where the emblematic celebration of the summer solstice becomes a sacred ritual.
The key, like every night from June 23 to 24, is to make sure that the ‘witches’ are scared away for another 365 days, for which fire, water and herbs are used.
First there was the falla, on the Riazor beach, with the figures of the painter Pablo Picasso, who spent his adolescence in the city; the legendary Deportivo coach who died this year, Arsenio Iglesias; the current star of the local team, Lucas Pérez; or the recently re-elected mayoress, Inés Rey.
The fire began to consume it shortly before twelve and, with it, began a tradition that is repeated, but never ceases to surprise, which was followed by fireworks.
The beaches of A Coruña began to burn at midnight, in a synchronized dance that comes out naturally, the assistants began to light their bonfires at the same time and left a print of some red and orange-dyed sandbanks, which gave off heat between shouts of joy.
Tradition requires fire, but you also have to work with it, because as soon as the bonfires are reduced, you have to jump them up to nine times to guarantee that the ‘witches’ stay away.
But the tradition of bonfires and sand pits has already spread to the entire city in A Coruña, from very early on.
Calle San Juan is one of the busiest spots, with music throughout the afternoon and parties throughout the night, headed by the statue of a sardine that for a few years has illustrated the access to this mythical area.
And the rest of the neighborhoods are also bustling with activity, with more than 600 bonfires and barbecue parties throughout the city, no corner is left without its dose of San Juan, with thousands of people.
The Celtas Cortos were at the Riazor, although no one was left without a party, not even in the rest of the region, where hundreds of fires were counted and sardines were on each grill, to release that fat that accumulates in the heat of the beginning of the summer and that gives meaning to the saying “wet the bread”.
It all started early because it is the shortest night of the year, but also the most emblematic and in which sunset and sunrise merge into a kind of orange-tinged landscape that hypnotizes the visitor and makes the Galician fall in love.
The tradition ends in the morning, with the seven herbs of San Juan and the classic purification of entire families first thing in the morning.
During the night, bouquets with mallow, rosemary, fern, fennel (fiúncho), lemon verbena, broom (xesta) and grass of San Xoán have rested in basins, buckets or sinks.
The aromatic water first thing in the day is the only thing that protects Galicia, according to tradition, from the ‘witches’, so the smell of smoke will end first thing in the morning to give way to a magical fragrance that marks the beginning of the summer.
Miguel Alvarez