Jumping over a bonfire seven times to achieve wealth, burning bad experiences, and sharing a purifying bath in the rough waters of northern Tenerife. With a forest fires alert that has forced to limit bonfires throughout the island, Playa Jardín, in Puerto de la Cruz, has become the haven that keeps alive the traditional celebration of Saint John’s night in Tenerife. Thousands of people from different parts of the island have invaded the black sands of the port beach to welcome summer, celebrate the announcement of Jesus’ birth, or simply spend a magical night in the light of the fire of wishes.
For Raquel Aguilar from Puerto, this celebration is always marked permanently on her calendar. She has been celebrating it since she was 15 years old and for her, it has always been a moment of family reunion that announces the beginning of summer. “Every summer we used to meet at Punta Brava beach to burn our notes and end the school year,” she reminisces. With time, the port night became “more crowded,” as she regrets. But in recent years, the tradition has almost returned to what it was. “Now there are more people, but it has become more familiar again,” Aguilar emphasizes.
This year she has come accompanied by her young daughter, her friends, and their children. “I want them to also link Saint John to the beginning of summer and integrate it into their lives as a tradition,” she narrates. The welcome night to summer is an unmissable event for both young and old. In the case of young Yenni Quintero, the celebration is a way to “relax after a tough exam period”. Both she and her friends have decided to create a unique setting with inflatable mattresses to drink, eat, and get rid of their university notes.
The buzz fills the entire beach where many have arrived early. Hundreds of people walk around looking for a place to set up their base camp. Most towels are placed around a small hole in the sand filled with bougainvillea flowers and candles that will be the ones to burn the first wishes.
After 19:00, a drum band makes its presence felt on the beach before the attentive gaze of hundreds of people. For over 20 minutes, the troupe entertains the atmosphere while a group of local children carrying San Juanito, a handmade dummy that, after the bonfire was lit around 22:00, served as an offering to the fire.
As the sun sets, a bright full moon shines on the faces of those who laugh, eat, and dance to welcome summer.
Traditions and rites of Saint John
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Saint John’s night is not only magical because of the atmosphere created around the fire. According to the tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation, it is hoped that the longest day of the year will bring prosperity to the population. This night, many of the rituals that in the past sought to attract good fortune and leave behind all the bad are replicated in different points of the port beach.
Among the most famous is jumping over bonfires. The ancient tradition highlights that jumping over the flames seven times is a call for good luck. And although it is forbidden to do it near the main bonfire, some still attempt it in their own fire. No less popular is the one of burning a paper in the bonfire with wishes and desires as well as fears, phobias, or past mistakes that are not to be repeated. This is the case of Aguilar’s children, who have written things they want to forget and once they light their candles, they will burn them. And in the cold waters of northern Tenerife, there are also many who, from midnight onwards, plunge into the sea to cleanse their souls and heal their pains.
In the rest of Tenerife, the celebration is bittersweet, as while the beaches will be open, not all of them will allow bonfires like the ones spreading tonight along the extensive volcanic beach of Puerto de la Cruz. The Tenerife Island Council has declared a forest fire alert on the island from June 3rd to November 3rd. Therefore, bonfires have been banned throughout Tenerife in all fire risk areas, namely forests, midlands, and rural parks of Teno and Anaga.
Puerto de la Cruz is one of the municipalities that celebrates this event with more fervor. In fact, the events have extended throughout the weekend and will continue this Monday as a prelude to the July festivities, the most important of the municipality. Eight fountains in the city have been decorated with fruits and flowers: Cuaco, Cupido, Las Cabezas, El Durazno, Calle Mequinez, Las Maretas, the fountain of the historic fishing pier, and finally that of Punta Brava. A decoration that, on the other hand, shows the pivotal points of a unique celebration on this weekend of traditions.
The Saint John ritual dates back to at least the 18th century in the fishing village, as was already narrated in his writings by one of the fathers of modern geography, the German naturalist and historian Alexander Von Humboldt. It was on his last day on the island when the renowned naturalist, after reaching the summit of Teide that same morning, descended to what was then Puerto de La Orotava and observed how it
The bonfire lights lit up the slopes of the volcano.
These three days of Portuense identity culminate this Monday when, at sunrise, citizens are summoned to the ritual of the Goat Bath in the Sea.
A pagan tradition
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The lighting of small and large bonfires on the eve of the celebration of San Juan is one of the most deeply rooted traditions in Europe. However, this night where fire is used to purify bad experiences from the past and wish for a prosperous future actually originated long before San Juan Bautista became a significant figure in society.
Long before Christianity evangelised the people, many were already celebrating the arrival of summer in the northern hemisphere between the 20th and 23rd of June. This pagan festival came to worship the Sun, to thank it for the much longer days and the warmth it brought with it. In the traditional rite, a bonfire was lit to raise the strength of the Sun, assuming that from then on the days were going to start getting shorter.
The festival was so widespread by the time Christianity made its presence known in Europe, that the Church could only reinterpret its purpose to give it a more Catholic touch. It was then that the celebration began to be linked to the birth of San Juan Bautista (June 24), as in Christian tradition it was this apostle who prophesied the birth of Jesus, whom he later baptized. Not in vain, his birth occurs six months before that of the Messiah.
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This mix of origins has caused a dispute over what the true “Night of San Juan” is. While it can be understood that from 12:00 a.m. it is already the ‘day of San Juan’ and, therefore (being night in areas far from the Arctic Circle), those first hours may be more than usual, the night is not usually referred to the first hours of it, but to the last ones, once the Sun has set. This different interpretation means that in some regions, such as Canary Islands, La Coruña or Barcelona, the celebrations take place on the night of the 23rd to the 24th of June while in other places it is on the night of the 24th to the 25th, such as in Alicante. These different interpretations also mean that in some places, the celebration extends to both nights depending on the festive spirit of each location, as is the case in some communities like Catalonia and Valencia and other provinces like León, Almería, Badajoz, Segovia.
