The best Fiesta of all

...It is approaching one of the greatest evenings of the calendar here in La Cala. San Juan. This fiesta happens on the 23rd of June every year and coincides with the summer solstice, and it is a strange mixture of Christian beliefs and pre-Christian actions. It is all about baptism San Juan being Saint John the baptist. However, there are a lot of pagan overtones which could be likened to the midsummer pagan feast. Even some of the costumes are pagan.

On San Juan everyone congregates on the beach, some light bonfires, some have candles, everyone has a cold box filled with food and drinks, people sit in collapsible chairs on towels on walls and really get into a party spirit. Prior to midnight a procession comes down to the bay from Finestrat village, people dressed up in uniform similar to the ku klux klan but in red are whirring fire crackers around their head, they walk to and fro along the shore and eventually they walk up the beach and light a firework rocket. This signals the start of a firework display that blows your mind.

When the fireworks finish this is the queue for you to write all the bad things that have happened to you over the past year on a piece of paper, they must be odd numbers of things 1,3,5,7,9 etc. you burn the paper in your candle. You then write down the good things you are hoping for in the year to come again odd numbers. you walk backwards into the sea and throw the paper over your shoulder into the sea. The burnt paper cleanses the bad and the new paper is the rebirth or baptism. The young Spanish males leap across the bonfires which is supposed to enhance fertility (the odd slip could easily cause the opposite in my opinion).

The formal bit ended, people seem to carry on partying into the small hours...