The history of the Hogueras de San Juan festival

Las Hogueras de San Juan (the bonfires of St. John)

The origins of this festival started many many centuries ago when Spanish towns and villages celebrated the Summer Solstice with purifying bonfires. In the Alicante area, the agricultural workers celebrated the longest day of the year for harvesting and the shortest night that bad spirits that could possibly come and harm them.  In time, the town joined in the celebrations but in the early 19th Century the local council prohibited fireworks, rockets or bonfires in the streets.

In 1881, the local council forgot to publish the warning that usually carried a fine for anyone disobeying these rules, and the neighbourhoods came together to take advantage by holding street parties.  They constructed bonfires but instead of the normal stack of wood and leftovers, they made grotesque figures of people that the neighbours criticised during that year.  However, after that year, many wealthy locals didnt want these celebrations to continue  because they thought that it projected a bad image of Alicante and once again the festivities were not allowed to take place.

An associacion called Alicante Atracción was created in 1928 to try to boost tourism in the town, and being inspired by las Fallas that are celebrated in Valencia on 19th March each year, they wanted to modify the Hogueras (bonfires) festival to make it offical and an important attraction for the town.  The proposition was accepted and it was reported that more than 100,000 people watched the bonfires burn that first 'offical' year.

The Valencians criticised the Alicantinos for 'copying' their festival, however this just spurred the locals on to make the Hogueras festival bigger and better every year.  A few years later the first Belleza del Fuego (beauty queen of the fire) contest was introduced so that the festival had a representative and a focal figure.  The participating neighbourhoods select a woman and a girl to put forward to compete for this prestigious title and they head up the various processions and events that happen during this fiesta.  They wear a traditional costume of agricultural origins from the 19th Century and very little has changed during these years keeping them as original as possible.

There are many events taking place during these fiestas that run from 20th til 24th of June each year (regardless of the day of the week) like bullfights and flower offerings to the Virgin Mary, and there are also many things happening before and after these dates.  The bonfires are lit at midnight on 24th June and signify the end of the show!

I will post more information about the various events as I just wanted to give a little run down of the history of the festivity for your information first.  I hope that you are able to come and enjoy the festival one day that is declared to be of International Turistic Interest and, of course, the Offical Festival of the City of Alicante.