![Sant Joan's Eve Firecrackers [enlarge]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3045/2606866479_2591b88b42_o.jpg)
Bonfires of Saint John (Fogueres de Sant Joan in Catalan) aka Nit de Sant Joan or Revetlle de Sant Joan on June 23rd is time for firecrackers (petardos), cocas (a sort of pastry) and cava which is in other words the Catalan version of champaign. If you follow the above link you will find out that this event intended to welcome the arrival of summer is not exclusively ours although we celebrate it perhaps more intensely than in other places. It must be said that bonfires are not as popular now as in the past when people used to take old furniture into the middle of the street to watch it burn and party all around. Now you have to go to the beach where the city council still allows bonfires and massive celebrations. The mess is so big that special brigades of garbage collectors have to be organized to clean up the sand from all sorts of bottles, shoes, and assorted crap. Most of us avoid these mega parties and gather with family and friends to eat and drink till late in the evening. All night long before and after supper we find some place in the garden or go to the nearest square to ignite firecrackers. In spite of all this you can hear firecrackers big and small, during the whole month of June. The one in the picture was a turning wheel not particularly dangerous. Some others are scaring just like the sort of big tube a friend of us tied up to a pole. The artifact got twisted upon burning and sent "shrapnel" against the big bucket where we had the beers on ice, piercing through it and leaving a big hole that emptied the whole thing in seconds.
