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You are here: Home Leisure Travel & Tourism Lives and Livelihoods in the Languedoc-Roussillon 11

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04/07/2008Lives and Livelihoods in the Languedoc-Roussillon 11

Basil Howitt discovers that the revival of Catalonia’s summer solstice festival on Mount Canigou was inspired by a rugby victory.

Midsummer Madness

One of the countless joys of living here is that each year you learn more and more about recurring major festivals.

No event in the Catalan calendar is more important than Els Focs de la Sant Jean or The Fires of St John, our mid-summer rites held on the region’s sacred mountain, Canigou (2,784 metres), and in towns and villages right across Catalonia.

Essentially the Fires celebrate the ancestral bonds of love and friendship between all Catalans everywhere – and by extension between all human beings. Indeed, many foreign nationals take part in the celebrations, though the current President of the Committee of the Fires of St John is, naturally, a Catalan, Jean Iglésis. He it was who spearheaded the celebrations in their present form from 1963.

The first midsummer fire on Canigou in modern times was lit on 23 June 1955 by one Francois Poujade and a few fellow USAP rugby fanatics - to celebrate his birthday and also the Perpignan team’s victory over FC Lourdes in the Yves du Manoir Challenge cup. Then between 1957 and 1963 Les Cercles des Jeunes enlarged the event. A local group belonging to an international network of young people devoted to good causes, Les Cercles extended the midnight fires to 20 further hill tops and watch towers. French Catalonia was truly ablaze!

La Trobada
Preparations for big events are often as much fun as the events themselves. So it seems with La Trobada (The Gathering or Reunion) when enthusiasts from many communes assemble for two days about a week before the solstice bonfire to make all the necessary preparations.

The meeting place is Les Cortalets (altitude 2,150 metres), an extensive plateau below Canigou. People make their way there either on foot along the track known as La Piste du Llech (a five hour walk), or by horse, mountain bike or 4x4s. Donkeys are allowed only for carrying supplies.
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