It is half past ten. I am sitting on the balcony with my laptop, and finally, at this time of day, the temperatures are a little more bearable. Maybe I should say at this time of late evening, when the night slowly brings its darkness, its coolness, and my inspiration to write this post that I had and then lost, on several occasions this afternoon. But the day was great, spent in the city of Alicante, visiting Santa Bárbara Castle, the old centre, the promenade and seeing the paper/wooden sculptures all around in the city that will be... burned down this night! 😱
We picked the most hectic day of the year to visit this city. 😂
Yeah, if you are from Spain, you probably know that in the days between 20 and 24 June, Alicante is on fire! Almost literally, as the days are accompanied by firework displays, music and that traditional burning of the sculptures seen on the streets and squares. It also means that many streets were closed to traffic... and we went by car. 😅 Avoiding those closed streets where the sculptures and stages for music were prepared, we arrived at the underground parking lot we had chosen already at home. Our walk through the city started, heading toward the fortification on the top of the Mount Benacantil hill.
This time, I will focus on the decoration we saw in the city and the wooden sculptures placed here for a special tradition that this city fully lives every year.
The first one that we saw was this piano!!! Omg, if I think about it... the flames will consume it in less than an hour... Luckily, I am not there anymore to see it haha, so it is easier to accept the fate of that piano made of styrofoam, paper and cardboard.
We have met for the very first time this tradition of setting bonfires on this day and burning down these kinds of sculptures on the streets when we came to live here. So, today is St. John's Eve. It is a tradition to gather around bonfires, to jump over the fire or burn down notes or wooden sculptures to get rid of negative energies. In some places, in the coastal towns, St. John's Eve can be celebrated with bathing in the sea at midnight. We did it some years ago, but the cold breeze after coming out from the sea in the middle of the night made me change my St. John's Eve habits, hahaha. I don't go into the water anymore for the sake of this tradition.
Hunting the sculptures through the city was more fun, though. We saw from a distance many more, but I was not alone. I think that dragging some elderly people with me to all corners of the city just to see as many of these monuments as possible would not be nice of me, so I only have these pictures that you see in my post.
Each of these monuments is full of details, and the colours are fantastic. So vibrant and attractive. The themes these sculptures represent are usually comical or satirical, or they raise awareness of some important topics.
Here is a small selection of these scenes from Alicante, presented this year for the Feast of Saint John the Baptist. I say "small selection" as there were many more in other streets and squares...
Btw, the streets were also full of street food stalls and all the offers that were coming from them. The smell of the grilled meat made us stop at one of these and eat, as I was already hungry. 😅 The food was not so expensive, but the drinks (just water and beer) had a crazy price. The vendors make money on tourists and hungry and thirsty people. 🤷♀
Soon, the wooden street sculptures will be burned down... However, there is one street with mushrooms (do you remember them?) that stay here during the whole year. These are not part of the St. John's Eve celebration; however, they are part of my post as I like the idea that some colourful, funny guys will survive this night. 😁
