San Juan Bautista is Tenerife’s midsummer festival and bonfire night

[Janet]

Tenerife has its own bonfire night, on the eve of the annual midsummer fiesta of San Juan Bautista (St John the Baptist). On St John's Eve, 23 June, Tenerife is lit up with bonfires and fireworks, and many visitors often think that a summer fire has started early. It will be no different this year, so expect to see plenty of smoke swirling above the hills throughout on Sunday.

The celebrations are far from restricted to the inland villages, however, with fires and parties on many beaches – particularly popular ones are held in El Médano and Los Cristianos, but the most spectacular will again be the celebration at the fiesta's namesake beach, Playa San Juan. If you are near one, you might even see some people jumping over the flames three times, a rite considered to be purifying and lucky, representing a burning away of the leaper's problems.

In Guía de Isora, the 24th, San Juan Bautista's Day itself is a public holiday, but the largest actual celebration takes place in Puerto de la Cruz, where goat keepers from the hills above the town bring their flocks down to the coast to bathe them in the sea in the early morning. This Baño de Cabras (bathing of the goats) is a tradition that is said to date back to pre-Hispanic times, making the animals literal scapegoats whose purification in the waters will bring good fortune on their keepers and the local community.

Wherever you celebrate la Noche or el Día de San Juan, I hope you have a great and safe time.

For more information in English see Don Quijote.org

JA

[Nova]

I have just been told that this year Arona is only allowing fires in certain places.  If I understood correctly, the ayuntamiento is trying to drive all bonfires to the beaches instead of the hills and villages.  Among the authorised beaches are Playa Las Vistas, Los Cristianos and Las Galletas.  I have been warned to expect floods of people descending on us tomorrow for bonfires and beach parties.

I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere 

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Hey, maybe they'll crank up the music for you!

[Michael]

Hey, maybe they'll crank up the music for you!

Well at least I know what to buy Nova next time I go to Tenerife. 

[Perikles]

If I understood correctly, the ayuntamiento is trying to drive all bonfires to the beaches instead of the hills and villages.

How incredibly farsighted of them. There must be somebody the a townhall with an IQ higher than their football shirt who has noticed that having bonfires in the mountains in the middle of summer might for some reason just be a bad idea. Where did they get that from? 

[El Profesor]

Tenerife has its own bonfire night,   ............

Actually it's the whole of Spain, they take it much more seriously in places like Valencia.

Close your windows folks - I call it "The night of burning plastic"

[Nova]

I can smell dirty smoke already 

[Guanche]

All windows and doors shut and draft excluders on the floor! But still the smoke of the dozen or so fires we can see gets inside. What makes it worse is that there's no wind and the smoke is just hanging.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Have counted 10 near fires around us, and can see the flames from a few.  So far wind is upward so it's not coming inside the house.

[Michael]

Send them over here. We'll show them how to build bonfires.