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The Catholic Church wanted to take advantage of these celebrations, not to fight them, but to mix them with the cult of St. John the Baptist, which was celebrated on June 23. However, the old traditions persisted and were integrated. In many places around the world, St. John’s Day is celebrated by lighting bonfires, over which revelers jump seven times – no more, no less – and then make wishes. It is also customary to leave bouquets of seven special herbs – no more, no less – including yerba rousa, rosemary, etc. On that magical night, these bouquets are dipped into the hands of the vigilants, who then wash their hands and faces the following morning, thus guaranteeing that the next San Juan year will be prosperous. All of this is, of course, accompanied by plenty of beer and other drinks, as well as a great deal of dancing of all kinds. These celebrations may be motivated by genuine religious or spiritual beliefs, or simply by a desire to follow a strong, indeed seditious, tradition.
I was in the Iberian Peninsula for personal reasons, and on the evening of San Juan, I found myself in the beautiful Galician city of A Coruña, where people take these traditions very, very seriously. The city beach of Orzán-Riazor was packed with celebrants who drank, danced, lit a sea of bonfires that competed with the usual sea, which kissed the sand a few meters away, and then jumped one after another, sometimes on the flames, or in the case of smaller bonfires, on the embers.
The Summer Solstice Spirits certainly look upon these practices kindly, as no one got burned, at least not during the time I was on the beach. They all take very seriously the precise details that must be respected and followed to the letter when performing these rituals – no more, no less.
In Guatemala, we are blessed with a stable and mild climate that, apart from rainy and dry variations, remains stable throughout the year and far from extremes. Or, at least, that was the case before the devastation we have experienced in recent years with extreme heat, droughts and catastrophic floods. However, we are still far from the dramatic seasonal changes experienced by countries further north in the hemisphere, and we still stubbornly and somewhat delusionally boast of our eternal spring.
I really like the idea of a big celebration in the middle of the year, not just at the New Year, but also to celebrate the beginning and the end of the New Year. I think it would be useful for us to get excited and celebrate something in the midst of the annual hustle and bustle, rather than the tenacious struggle for our survival and the battle against the vicissitudes of nature, politics and crime that the average Guatemalan faces every day and, at the same time, with his simplicity hardly aware of his heroism. The celebrations in June would help us to recalibrate halfway and look forward again to the good things in life without thinking of anything to do with the new year.
Regardless, there are many things in common between world cultures. We also love to light bonfires, as we show every December 7 when we burn the devil. The seven herbs of San Juan Night invariably refer to the seven mountains, which people of different spiritualities use to purify themselves in order to ward off bad energies and attract abundance. On this planet, which is not short of challenges, it is a universal thing to hope that the remaining half of the year will be kind to us.
(frasepzp1)
Despite the lessons that the terrible twentieth century taught us in blood, the right is resurgent around the world. From Millet, who cuts off hard-won social rights with a chainsaw in Argentina, to the fascist far-right Marine Le Pen, who did well in the last European Parliament elections and, for the first time in the history of her party, threatens her. There are many ghosts that travel the world in order to rule France, hiding the fangs of the wolf of racism and xenophobia with a gentle and soothing lamb’s clothing. There is no shortage of challenges, wars and economic crises, uncertainty about the path to take, the forgetting of the values that make us consider ourselves a truly civilized and human society.
In Guatemala, contrary to this murky world reality, after a long night of corruption and impunity, we are experiencing an attempt at rebirth that faces many obstacles. Despite the challenges, disappointment and impatience of many, it is already bearing fruit. The nomination commissions for magistrates of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal are being merged with honest lawyers who are far away from the compromise and co-optation mechanisms that have been established since the days of Otto Pérez Molina. The representatives of the corrupt pacts are losing momentum and space, which is always good news. The scale of the attacks that the Guatemalan state has suffered over the years is difficult to calculate, and equally it is difficult to accept that the government cannot repair such dilapidated, damaged and looted buildings in just a few years. Months. The steps that are being taken are necessary to restore the functional state to where it was.
It is important to take all of this into account, which is why I think it would not hurt us to have a celebration in the middle of the year to restart the fight to get the country out of the quagmire and bring new hope. It could be the summer solstice, a mid-year holiday, whatever reason we can think of. For my part, I would be happy to build a huge bonfire in all the corrupt and dysfunctional structures of our country, and I would happily jump seven times on the embers of its smoldering embers with a strong hope for a better country, a healthy country, a real country – no more, no less -.
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