Tonight, thousands of fires all across Spain, from La Coruña to Alicante, from Cadiz to the Basque Country, will light the shorthest night of the year.
People will eat grilled sardines, different types of meats and sausages while dancing and singing around the fires. There will be verbenas, concerts and folk music. Finally the brave ones will jump over the fire and even more, in some places they will walk barefoot over the burning embers.
In the Basque country they have Akelarres wich are meetings of witches around the fire.
In Galicia they say tonight is the night of the Meigas, the Galician fairies.
In Alicante city there are Fallas and fireworks like in Valencia for the spring equinox.
We are celebrating the Christian festivity of Sant Jhon, but they say what we celebrate is the pagan festival for the summer solstice, as they do in many other European and Mediterranean countries.
Some people say this ancient tradition comes from Celts, others from Greeks, it is not clear, what is clear is that it existed long time before Christianity spread across Europe.
The spirits seem to be here in Madrid tonight considering the scary storm with hailstone and lots thunders included we are having at the moment I write these lines.
San Xoan, A Coruña
Fogueres de Sant Joan, Alicante city
Walking the embers in San Pedro Manrique (Soria Province)
Jaleo (dancing horses), Ciutadella de Menorca (Balearic Islands)

Thank you for posting this, Valenciano_en_Madrid! I know someone who is in Santiago right now and said that it was the "noche de horgueras" and I had no idea what he was talking about! Very interesting festival that I hadn't heard of before, so I appreciate the information you wrote.

Yes , thanks Damian that was a fascinating post .. My flatmate is from Alicante and he told me about the fallas style celebration over ther on the East coast but I had no idea about the rest of Spain . Fairies , Demons etc.. Great stuff !
And you're right about the weather .. Wow that was wild ( but beautiful ) last night .. Constant lightning and thunder but still so warm ... I don't know about Majadahonda , but here in Salamanca barrio we lost all our electricity .. Now all back to Normal and a beautiful , sunny , hot morning .

Thanks Steve, the storm was terrible here too.
There are lots of superstitions about the night following the longest day of the year, all of them related to good luck, enchantments, curing deseases with strange methods, and women and land fertility.
For example, you have to swim in the sea before sunrise to have good luck.
In some places they say that some plants picked this night can cure some deseases.
In some country villages, they say that if you plant your vegetables this night you'll have a good harvest.
People dance around the fire to keep demonds and spirits away.
Unfortunately globalization and modern life are terminating all these traditions and transforming them in big botellones around the fire.

Fire Demonds, Barcelona
Sant Joan in Sagunt, 30km north from Valencia.

Fire demonds in León

El País photogallery