Superstitions, rites and healing on the night of San Juan in the villages of Granada

For centuries the existence of witches and goblins terrified many of the inhabitants of La Alpujarra villages of Granada province and certain ghosts considered the area as their own home. The dead could appear at any time of the year demanding a promise from a relative that had not been fulfilled while they were alive because they had died suddenly.

Still today in the Alpujarra villages there are many superstitions, legends and rites, for example to find love, fortune and good health and many of these are performed on the night of San Juan Bautista, 23 June, the shortest night of the year. The celebration of San Juan is accompanied by the summer solstice and commemorates the triumph of light over darkness.

The summer solstice is magical, or so tradition dictates. Water, earth and fire are the three elements around which the night revolves. Water is generally associated with the healing of illness and female fertility, earth with love, and fire with purification. The fire of the bonfires is attributed a purifying function on the night of San Juan. The dew of this magical night is also said to ensure health and beauty. In Soportújar everything related to witchcraft has turned the village into one of the most well-known in Spain, attracting many tourists and visitors throughout the year.

In ancient times it was said that for a fiancé or fiancée to remain faithful to his or her beloved for life, a small cross had to be made on the trunk of a tree on the night of San Juan. If you jumped over a bonfire seven times that night the fire would provide protection for the whole year. Years ago for a wish to come true you had to place nine flowers (it didn't matter what type) under your pillow on the night.

Lanjarón, which is famous for its springs and the mineral water brand named after the village, celebrates the night of San Juan with its traditional 'Carrera del Agua' (water race). Thousands of people throw buckets of water at each other for an hour. Many people use hoses. This year the Fiestas de San Juan, del Agua y del Jamón of Lanjarón started on 20 June and will end on Tuesday 24, which is Día de San Juan.

In the middle ages many people from the Alpujarra villages cured illnesses, saved their crops and strengthened their wisdom on the night of San Juan and witches and sorcerers performed old chants and evil rituals. In the area around 'Tajo de la Cruz' in Lanjarón, as well as in Cáñar, Soportújar, Trevélez, Olías, Bubión, Ferreirola, it was said that the ringing of a mysterious bell could be heard.

It is also said that whoever bathes in the dew of the night of San Juan will be blessed for the whole year. A sprig of mistletoe under the pillow will bring good luck if it is placed under the pillow that night. There was a time when black magic was practised to get rid of a person using a doll made of mud or dough to represent the victim, into which pins were periodically stuck, while reciting the secret formula learned from the fortune teller. In the 'devil's apothecary' there was a remedy for almost everything.

Some villagers acquired potions from the sorcerers for doing good and evil: to cure ailments.

If there was a crescent moon you could not kill a pig or, if it occurred in January, you could not sow garlic because the earth would reject it.

In August you could only pull up onions under a waning moon and there were rituals prohibiting women who were breastfeeding not to drink from the same pot as one of them would lose a nipple. A menstruating maiden could not climb a fig tree because she would exhaust the plant and so on.

In other villages of the Alpujarra, stuttering, ringworm and strabismus (crossed eyes or squints) were also cured on the night of San Juan. The mother of the sick child would stand on one side of a bush and pass her son over it, saying to the godmother who stood on the opposite side: "I give him to you and may his illness remain in this bush", to which the godmother replied: "and I receive him. Amen". In the olden days, at midnight on the night of San Juan, a if a black hen laid an egg it would be broken and placed in a glass and the following morning the image of a sailing ship would appear.

It was also said that the water in which the phenomenon had taken place had healing virtues and was therefore kept in a container. Also, in other villages, the fertility of the land was obtained by burying a piece of candle that had burnt on the night of San Juan in the ground.

Drinking the strained liquid from watercress was said to bring immediate fertility to women who were having trouble getting pregnant.