La Noche de San Juan

23 junio 2012



So, it's kind of hard to keep up with all that happens here. Basically just ask me about the details when I'm home and I'll elaborate. : ]

I want to tell you about yesterday. So, we went to see a play. Yes, a Spanish play, Peter Pan. It was really great, performed at the Universidad Laboral. We toured it the other day, so I have pictures that I'll show ya. Anyway, the songs were all fabulous Spanish versions and the singing and acting was legit.

Then later, it was La Noche de San Juan.

The whole scene... As much as a camera can capture of it, anyway. Little bonfires and people milling around everywhere.

It's spectacular to watch fireworks on the beach.

What is La Noche de San Juan, you might wonder. I'd never heard about it before coming here. Basically it's a celebration of summer, the end of school and a way to purge yourself. It's tradition to burn a list of desires that you wish for or bad habits that you wish to leave behind. Along with this superstitious night you can burn your lover's name in the fire, take a midnight swim and jump over a fire, all for good luck.

Fireworks happened at midnight, and I was perfectly fine with that since I'll miss the 4th of July at home. The fire though, that was the epic part of the evening. Because it was grande. Grandísmo. The biggest I've ever seen. Ep. Ic. Here's the thing. After the fireworks, the tall, carefully build tower of wood exploded with firecrackers. And became a fogata (bonfire).

That must have taken some serious engineering to perfect this structure.

Sparksies.

We met up with some people in our group beforehand, and then ran into pretty much the rest of our group at the fire (it was a night for superstitious and magical happenings...) and we all threw in our lists or things we wanted to get rid of and then watched that huge fogata burn. Every time a tier of the fire collapsed, the whole thing would shoot up so many sparks that it looked like an infestation of fireflies. I loved it.

Asturian Celtic band jammers.

Our habits, desires and wishes in a bottle.

They also had an Asturian Celtic band, Dixebra, jamming out and we loved them. I bought their band shirt because they were so great. The whole city was at La Playa Poniente that night hanging out. It wasn't just one huge bonfire though, the whole beach was filled with smaller ones and I saw people talking, laughing, drinking and burning their homework all night. It was quite a riot. Nobody bothered to check the time or wonder when the sun might be coming up.

After I watched one of my crazy friends take the midnight swim thing to heart, a bunch of us got some Döner Kebab, a famous Turkish meal. It has been on my Gijón bucket list to get that, because they have a lot in Spain, so I'm glad I fulfilled it, even if it was at 3 a.m.

Döner Kebab.

Then we figured we'd seen it all, so we left the party and headed home, smelling like burnt wishes and Turkish food, ready for a new day.

I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate life and the end of my stay in Gijón. One more week left.

Hasta luego, amigos.