The Fête de St. Jean

Three are two fêtes I try never to miss. One is Geneva’s Escalade celebrating victory over the French and the other is Argelès’s fête de St. Jean.

The origin of the holiday in France was the pagan celebration of the summer solstice; a celebration of light and a symbol of hope. In the reign of the French King Clovis, the annual event was Christianized and became a religious celebration of the birth of John the Baptist, who is known as the Precursor of Christ, the light of the world – thus the link with the solstice and the bonfires.

The festival of Jean Baptiste had particular importance for all the Catholics of Europe, especially those of France. The King of France would light the bonfire in the nights of June 23 and 24 in Paris.

Although I had a 6:30 train to Geneva the next morning nothing would keep me away from the Fête de St Jean. Children marched to drummers into Place Gambetta carrying their piles of sticks wrapped in Catalan ribbons of yellow and orange stripes. They carefully layered them onto the wood stacked for the bonfire.

While waiting for the flame to come down from the top of Mt. Canigou, there was dancing including the local native dance, the Sardane with its whiney music and simple three step pattern that after years and years and years, I haven’t mastered.

Then the flame arrived and the bonfire was ignited sending sparks hundreds of feet into the sky.

Then the drums began and beat and beat and beat and beat and beat followed by men dressed in costume (I assume fireproof) with giant sparklers throwing their stars 20 or more feet in circles as they danced and danced and danced. The spectators sometimes had to duck as the wind blew the sparks in their direction. One man wore his sparkler on his bank shooting a wall of stars to the stars. He ran in circles followed by other men using sparklers that flew in crowns. The performance lasted almost thirty minutes and sometimes the circle was filled with white as if the sun had made a quick guest appearance on earth. When the last one died, the drummers led the witnesses in a drum only march.

The days will grow shorter now. The grapes on the vineyards will ripen. The courgettes will become to numerous. The seasons will flow one after another until we reach the winter solstice when we will bring trees that once lived into our homes to bring back the healing sun.