Life in Spain: Jumping into Summer at Midnight

Hello and welcome back to Life in Spain. Thank you for being here, and if you're new, welcome aboard. You can always go back through past issues to catch up on life over here.

Before I get into it, a quick note. There's no video this week, and I owe you an apology for the quiet stretch, because I've been sick for the past few days and it slowed everything down. The good news is that I have one in the oven that I'm genuinely excited about, and I expect to have it out to you later this week.

Last time I told you San Juan was coming and that I'd live it first and write about it properly, so here it is.

This week in Spain

San Juan is the night Málaga welcomes the summer, and it turns the whole coastline into one long celebration that runs until sunrise. On the night of the 23rd the beaches fill up completely, with bonfires going up along the sand, music drifting from every direction, food and drinks passing around, and families and friends staking out their patch to see the night through.

I went down to the beach and lived the whole thing, and there's a charge in the air that you only really get when an entire city decides to be in the same place at the same time.

What I love most about it are the traditions. The idea behind the fire is that you write down the things you want to leave behind, the parts of the past year you're ready to be done with, and you let the flames take them so you can walk into the next stretch a little lighter. Then, right at midnight, everyone moves down into the sea together and jumps the waves as they roll in, which is meant to wash off the old year and pull a bit of luck toward you for the one ahead.

I did it the way you're supposed to, sending what I wanted to leave behind up into the fire and then wading in at midnight to jump the waves with the rest of the beach. Standing in the water at midnight with thousands of other people doing exactly the same thing, the fires still glowing back on the sand behind us, was the kind of moment that reminds me why I moved here in the first place.

There was football in the air too. Spain is through to the last 16 of the World Cup after beating Austria 3-0 in the round of 32, with Mikel Oyarzabal scoring twice, and tomorrow they play Portugal, which is about as big as a match gets on this side of the border. I'll let you know how it goes.

A little history: why we burn things on the beach

One of the things I keep coming back to is how old this night really is. The fires don't actually fall on the summer solstice itself, which this year landed on June 21, but a couple of days later on the night of the 23rd, and the tradition of lighting them stretches back long before the saint's name was ever attached to it. Cultures across Europe lit great bonfires around the solstice to honor the sun at its highest point and mark the turn of the season, and when the Christian calendar arrived the night got tied to Saint John the Baptist while those old fire rituals carried on more or less unchanged.

That's the piece I find quietly amazing about living here. The fire still carries the same meaning it always has, a sense of clearing out and starting over, where you send up what you want to be rid of and begin the next chapter clean. Along parts of the coast people even build little rag figures called júas, stuffed with paper and sawdust, and throw them onto the flames at midnight, which is really just another way of letting the old year go up in smoke. So when you're standing on the sand watching the fire do its work, you're taking part in something people have done in this same place, in one form or another, for a very, very long time.

Sabor de España

I'm taking a short break from the food feature this week, since San Juan earned the whole issue. Sabor de España returns next week.

What I've been working on

The thing filling most of my time lately has been filming. I've been leaning hard into showing you the Journeys Across Spain, the smaller towns and quiet corners that most people skip right past, and the video I mentioned up top is exactly that. I didn't want to rush the edit, especially feeling under the weather this past week, so I'm giving it the time it deserves and I'll have it in your inbox soon.

Before you go

That's what summer looks like from here right now, with fire on the beach, a midnight swim, and a whole country holding its breath over a football match.

If there's a corner of Spain you'd like me to take you to, or something about life over here you're curious about, I'd genuinely love to hear it. Hit reply, email me at hello@evanthewayfarer.com, or leave it in the comments on a video.

I'll see you on the trail.

Evan the Wayfarer