For this festival, people gather together and create large bonfires from any kind of wood, such as old furniture and cardboard. Thousands of bonfires along the beachs and in each of the cities' neighbourhoods, bringing together groups of friends, families, to dance and participate in a banquet of barbecued sardines and boiled potatoes or "cachelos" and eat them with bread and wine. This is most common on the coast but it´s being extended to the rest of Galicia.
In Galicia, Midsummer night is the night of miracles and enchantments.
The traditional ritual is jumping over the bonfire an odd number of times. San Xoan´s bonfires have purifying qualities: they stop people being jinxed and cure different illnesses.
That night the water from saint and miraculous fountains has a greater power. Sick people go there to have a bath or even to drink from it.
In Galicia it is very usual for people to collect flowers and different herbs during the afternoon and evening. Then, they put them into water and leave them there the whole night, until dawn. This way, they can get wet with the dew in the morning. One can wash oneself with that same water.
These herbs are called "San Xoan's herbs" and include several kinds like: "fennel", "camomile", "mallows", "lemon verbena", "laburnum", "rosemary", "rose", etc., having different healing qualities.
