There is still a month left, but it is one of the most popular festivities in all of Spain and the one that usually welcomes summer: the festival of San Juan, with its famous bonfires on the beach, is already appearing on the calendar.
For 2021, the feast of San Juan will be on Thursday, June 24. As it is a regional holiday, it is not celebrated throughout the Spanish territory and there are only two communities that will give this holiday to their citizens: Catalonia and the Valencian Community.
This year there is a difference: in 2021 Galicia does not celebrate San Juan, as it did in 2020. For this year, the Galician community has preferred to celebrate this Monday, May 17, the Day of Galician Letters.
Why and where is San Juan celebrated?
The festival of San Juan commemorates the birth of Saint John the Baptist, although it is closely linked to the summer solstice, which takes place in the northern hemisphere just three days before.
Although the most traditional image of this festival evokes the bonfires on Valencian and Catalan beaches in which citizens jump over the fire several times and make a wish, the truth is that, apart from work calendars, it is a festival spread throughout the country and celebrated differently depending on the region.
But not only in Spain, this festivity is also celebrated in Latin American countries with a strong ancestry of Spanish customs such as Argentina, Cuba or Peru, among others. Also in other countries such as Portugal, England, France or Nordic countries such as Sweden, Norway or Finland.
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