FOCS DE SANT JOAN

The most beautiful festival in Catalonia is the Saint-Jean night, during which on June 23rd, fires illuminate the night of the summer solstice on all sides. On June 22, three young mountaineers reached the top of the Canigó to set fire to the huge wooden mound at the last stroke of midnight. This light perched at an altitude of 2,764 m is visible, like a lighthouse, hundreds of kilometres away. Immediately, runners, rural lamps in hand, hurled down the flanks of the sacred mountain and distributed the flame to torchbearers who set off to light the fires in each village. This flame, which expresses the brotherhood between peoples, is so striking that, since 2010, the Generalitat de Catalunya has declared Sant Joan, the national holiday of the Catalan countries.