SAN JUAN
The festival of San Juan is celebrated on the evening of the 23rd of June each year with people staying out late and even camping on the beaches. This yearly event is filled with rituals which are still popular today amongst many of the Spanish partly because of their religious roots but more likely because they're just fun.
One of the most obvious spectacles of the San Juan festivities are the lighting of bonfires which in coastal areas tend to take place on the beaches. These fires have two symbolic meanings, one is to give the sun more strength as from this day on the sun gets weaker and the days shorter and the second is to cleanse the onlookers of their sins. It's said that anybody who jumps over one of these bonfires three times will be purified of their sins and their problems burned away. You'll also sometimes see small pieces of paper being burnt on these fires too. It is a common tradition in some parts of Spain to write down wishes and throw them onto the fires for them to come true!