Is well worth an effort booking a Hostel in Spain during the Sant Joan Celebration. It's a very special night where since ancient times magical rituals have been held. It is the night that welcomes the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year. And since from that day, nights start to get longer, it is said by old traditions that while building a big fire, the sun would be powered up. The Sant Joan Night is a night of old traditions and legends around the fire and powder.
If you book your Hostel in Barcelona during the night of June 23rd to June 24th, you'll live the very special celebration called the Verbena de Sant Joan, popularly known as "Nit del Foc" or "Nit de Bruixes". The tradition for that evening celebration in Barcelona is similar to the way it's held in other Spanish cities such as Alicante, Cadiz and the coast of Galicia.
During the days before the night of June 23, people prepare on the streets what the call "hogueras", large piles of wood, old furnitures, cardboard boxes, paper board boxes and junks.
When the sun sets those piles are burned, and they keep up burning for the whole night and the party starts. Following the tradition, people normally have dinner outside with family and friends. In each neighborhood or village is usually a band playing music. If you spend the night of Sant Joan in Barcelona, you must try the traditional "Coca de Sant Joan" for dinner dessert, as well as and drinking some cava, the typical drink for that night. The cava is the Catalan made Champaign.
Get prepared for the noisy Sant Joan firecrackers and fireworks. As a tradition on the night of June 23rd, Barcelona and throughout Catalonia, all cities and villages become the cities of powder, smoke and noisy firecrackers. At every corner of the city, at any time during the night, you'll hear explosions, large or small, firecrackers everywhere, and the sky permanently illuminated by the colored lights of fireworks.
Sant Joan is a great party that lasts all night, a party to be lived on the street, a celebration that ends when the sun that was once worshiped is looming on the horizon.
