Fire, Brimstone and Full Moon

Full Moon on Sunday June 23rd fell on the Festival de San Juan here in Palma, Mallorca. Now full moon is always a big deal to us and the Festival is always a big deal here in Spain, and when you put the two together--it is a BIG DEAL !!! And we crossed to Mallorca at this time so that we could be here to experience it all together. Two years ago we were here at this time without knowing what the Festival was (check out the blog post 6-26-11) and were taken totally unaware by it's magnitude. Not this time. We came fully prepared for the fire and brimstone that would rain down on our heads as we ran from devils chasing us with torches of fire.
Note the hair all tucked up under hats so that it doesn't catch on fire....
                                                                                             

It all starts rather innocently, with a mellow celtic concert in the park below the Cathedral. Lots of people dancing in that River Dance circular sweet sort of way. Then as it finally begins to be late enough after sunset (10:30 or so), all of the lights go out in the park and all hell breaks loose!!!

Many, Many and we mean many devils with big cave-men type clubs lit with fire begin to emerge out of the darkness and begin to taunt you and chase you and if you are brave enough, invite you to dance with them. The Festival is centered around Summer Solstice and the concept is to dance with the devil and the darkness and then to wash your sins away in the ocean at midnight, to emerge clean and ready for the light of summer. To understand it is one thing, to experience it is another. Only in Europe, or perhaps only in Spain could something so insanely dangerous and exciting take place on such a large scale. As if the devils weren't enough, literally fire and brimstone (fireworks) rain down on your heads. And all of this goes on to the beat of primal drums for over an hour--until midnight.

Of course, these pictures can't even begin to show you what we are trying to describe to you.

What a sight of the full moon above massive fireworks, smoke and devils raining down all around us. At times there was so much smoke that we couldn't even see her. Notice the little dot in the center of the picture--yeah, that's Mother Moon.

So these are just pictures of a dragon spewing fire, fireworks above and all around us with smoke and masses of people dancing and running in and out of the fire.

Okay, maybe you get the general idea, but probably not. It truly is not for the faint of heart and must be experienced for any understanding as to why anyone would subject themselves to this kind of adrenaline exhausting activity. But yes, we did it again and left totally exhausted and smelling of smoky fireworks. It was well after midnight and we were just too tired from dancing with the devil to drag ourselves over to the beach for a moonlight dip to wash our sins away. In fact, we decided that we like our sins just fine and will just keep them....

A great YouTube Video of the Festival de San Juan in Palma, Mallorca in 2011 (the year we were here last time) is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=20n-L8jDAC4