San Juan In Granada Is A Special Fiesta

Out With The Old And In With The New

The fiesta of San Juan in Granada Province is wonderful.

Even though it takes place in June, in some ways it allows us to have a "New Start To The Year" part way through the old. A type of second chance to make a new start.
san juan fireworks

The feast-day of San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist) is celebrated on the 24th June. The celebrations of the auspicious feast-day of San Juan in Granada centres around washing away the old and starting with the new. This is also the time of the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, which marks the longest day of the year.

This period is celebrated thoughout Spain, encompassing self-cleansing, music, bonfires, fireworks and dancing. For those of us celebrating San Juan of Granada province there are two unmissable festivities which occur in Padul and in Almunecar.

San Juan Fiesta in Padul

Leave Los Limoneros, our guest house, and walk along the the old Roman Road towards Padul. In a few minutes you will reach the Fuente del Mal Nombre (The Spring of the Bad Name).

Usually this is a quiet and restful place where you can see the locals stopping to drink the waters, or even fill their bottles with the ever-flowing spring water to take to their homes (much better than buying their mineral water).

Sometimes passers-by just take to sitting on the seat at the spring and enjoy the view over the Laguna, with the cooling sound of running water providing sufficient refreshment for them. beach fire for San Juan

However, go there at midnight on the feast of San Juan in Granada and you will see a totally different picture.

After the celebrations in Padul - which invariably include music, singing, dancing and celebrating - the attentions of the village turns to the Fuente for the culmination of San Juan fiesta Granada.

There will be throngs of people, each one leaning over, cupping their hands in the spring water and then splashing the water onto their faces three times. This is typical of Granada San Juan, and symbolically washes away the worries of the past year and welcomes in the new with hope in their hearts. And perhaps more importantly, the local tradition promises that those who wash their faces in such a manner will grow even more beautiful (or handsome) during the coming year.

Anyone studying the faces of the Padulians will surely soon have the opinion that most of the villagers must have washed their faces in the spring waters on San Juan in Granada some year or other!

San Juan Fiesta in Almunecar

Less than an hour away from our bed and breakfast Granada is the spanish resort of Almunecar.

San Juan in Granada is celebrated in a big way there, where, as a concession to the importance of the fiesta, the beach is allowed to be used as a campsite for just this one night of the year.

As the day of the 23rd begins, already you will see people settling down on the beach, many pitching tents and lighting their bonfires. These will be used later for two very important purposes.

Jumping the bonfire

The feeling of excitement is intense as the excitement builds up during the day and beach barbeques (moragas) are built. The barbecue is a favourite means of preparing food this day. However, a typical food that doesn't need any cooking is a bread roll cooked with olive oil and with a hard boiled egg securely fixed with pastry strips into its centre. These are traditionally enjoyed by the celebrants.

As night falls, bonfires are stoked up and those brave enough will jump over the flames to show their bravery (or foolishness!). Three jumps traditionally cleanse the jumper from his or her diseases and sins, thus ensuring that the following year will be their best yet.

It is now that the participants will throw photographs, mementoes and objects which invoke unhappy memories into the flames in a symbolic act of removing the bad things that happened during the previous year from their lives.
rockets at San Juan

When midnight approaches, the sky is lit up with a host of fireworks and flashes and sounds of celebration as the participants go to the sea to wash themselves clean with the water..

....some will cup their hands and wash their faces three times while others plunge into the water. Either way, they all know that the coming year will bring more beauty not only to their faces, but also to their lives.

The celebrations complete, some will warm themselves dry at the bonfires and go home, while others will bed themselves down, ready for a night of singing, drinking and great fun.

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San Juan in Granada, a wonderful time of year, a wonderful fiesta and a wonderful year ahead. What more could anyone ask for?

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