Legends of the Night of San Juan

"A quín coja la yerbuca la mañana de San Juan, nu li dañarán cuilebras nin Caballucus del mal"

The shortest night of the year, the night of June 23, a reference date for many cultures, but what is there in common between all the rituals and traditions of (apparently) so disparate peoples?

Origins and Legends

This day, a true summer solstice festival, often extended over the next two days, is universally practiced from the Maghreb to Egypt.

Some Arab researchers consider the origin of this festival in the transformation of the ancient "Mihridjan", Sun Festival for the Persians that used to be celebrated on the 16th of the month of Mihrmah.

The "Calendario de Córdoba" also speaks of the same date of June 24 as the commemorative festival in which Joshua stopped the sun.

But what all the authors agree on is that it is a festival that marked the beginning and end of a cycle in correlation with another past, and was a reference in the agrarian calendars of cultures such as the Celtic or the Amazigh:

"After the days of the Vieille de Yennayer, a mysterious life revived the fields and the men that night ate until they were satisfied, more than until they were satisfied, to have an abundant year. The fires of the `ainsara´, the woman burned alive, They mark the end of the harvest and the life of the fields." (J. Servier)

However, the lɛinesla (Tamazight) bonfires are not a sign of total death. If they mark the end of the fertile cycle of the fields, they also inaugurate another one, with the proliferation of fruit trees, fig trees and vines in particular.

The rite of fire

And it is that for the Berbers, as for us, fire was a form of purification.

In the Kabyle tribes there are numerous versions of the legend of "the woman burned alive" due to her bad behavior or her wickedness that would give rise to the fire ritual as purification and removal of evil.

"There was once a woman who for her misconduct or wickedness was condemned to be burned alive. The fruit trees affected by the smoke from her pyre received a boost of fertility and produced a much larger harvest that year." (Excerpt from different versions of the traditional legend collected in Mostaghanem, Tlemcen, and different points of the geography of Kabylia.)

The Berbers of Greater Kabylia (Tizi Ouzou Region in Algeria) understood that the smoke from the fire made under fruit trees on the morning of June 24 was beneficial in order to prevent the fruits from falling before maturity; it prevented the proliferation of flies and pests and as a result, ensured its fertilization.

In other areas of Kabylia, the fires used to take place at sunset. The braziers were lit in the patios of the houses, in the vicinity of vacant lots or in the threshing floors.

Afterwards, the children jumped on the flames saying:

"Ass-agi d ɛinesla, ur ay-teftaɣ tawla; af tideṭ tesres tlaba, elwil yerwel s aẓekka"

("Today is Leinesla; may the fever free us. On a healthy body one puts on clothes; may misfortune be buried")

El rite of water

Water also played an important role during these days.

It is curious to see the similarities between our popular ritual of "Enrame de las Fuentes" or "La flor del agua" with the ritual of water purification and cleaning of the Berber fountains, which was carried out as the only work during this festive day.

Also washing first thing in the morning with an infusion of aromatic herbs or chewing some of them (fueya sanxuanera) was another of the purification rituals that are connected with our tradition of "the seven herbs of San Juan" spread throughout the world. peninsular north, in which the women went out to collect medicinal or aromatic herbs that would cleanse our bad omen.

It is curious that the fig or the fig tree are a symbol in both cultures.

While in our region the arrival of the "Figu de San Xuan" is celebrated and it was common to see "branches" of trees in the windows of marriageable girls offered by their boyfriends; Berber women used to go out on the morning of San Juan to collect a bouquet of figs from the nearby fig trees to hang it from the doors of the houses where there were children, with the intention that they would give them good offspring and have a happy marriage in the future .

Hundreds of connections, hundreds of unions that are reflected in each of our inherited traditions and that embark us on a wonderful world of collections that are born of that cultural miscegenation as unknown as it is exciting.

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