Happy Night of San Juan!
_Old-fashioned, I question the stars,
its naked, unappealable mystery,
while I look at the llamas on the beach,
on this night when summer begins.
John Louis Panero
Tonight is San Juan. Tonight the planet (yours, mine) will go up in flames in a global offering of fire and purification : Tonight millions of bonfires will be lit around the world in a pagan chant to the moon, on the shortest night of the year. Tonight (virtually) all cultures, peoples and religions surrender to the magic of fire and water.
The summer solstice occurs between June 21 and 22 in the Northern Hemisphere. ; Solstice derives from the Latin solstitium, sun (the star) and stitum (stop). The stopping of the sun that marks the time when it is farthest from the Equator and when it seems to be stranded in the seas of the Universe —as on so many other occasions, Christianity translated this celebration (which has been celebrated since prehistory, the sun as a symbol of wealth, warmth and fertility) through the figure of Saint John the Baptist, the only Saint whose birth is celebrated and not death.
The shortest night of the year and, they say, the most magical
Tonight is San Juan . Tonight we “turn on” the sun **and celebrate that we are alive in the saddest sunset of the year (today the Sun bids farewell)** —in the Hindu tradition the summer solstice is the “gate of men”, which gives access to the pitr-yâna. The "door of men" (which corresponds to the zodiacal sign of Cancer) gives way to the moment of looking inside: "know yourself and you will know the Universe".
The Celts called the night of San Juan alban heruin and the Greeks lit purifying bonfires in honor of the god apollo . The Incas, on the other side of the Atlantic, celebrate the Inti-Raymo or festival of the Sun; that every twenty-fourth of June took place in imperial Cuzco, in an inaccessible and sacred precinct.
Today is the Night of San Juan
_How secret and beautiful
It's the festive night for him
that has no past: a cold time
inside the heart.
what an exact night
of fire and youth.
Felipe Benitez Reyes
Tonight is San Juan. Millions of bonfires will light up the shortest night and we will indulge in pagan rituals; ancestral: jumping the bonfire, making a wish, mint in the window, feet in the icy water of the sea and the promise (your name on a piece of paper) of a true love . Curious, in this today of selfies and digital affections.
There is no more telluric celebration (the telluric, which is nothing more than what the earth imposes) that connects us more to the sacred; to doubt, mystery and life. It is time of fertility, tides and harvests ; of thanks for the gifts received and recollection for the coming fall.
It is time, without further ado, to celebrate that the sun is leaving us — but here we continue.