Student Takeover - San Juan, Mallorca's Biggest Summer Solstice

This blog post is written by Cooper Keys about his experience on Mallorca's most celebrated summer festival. 

Today I got to experience one of the festivals celebrated here in Mallorca, San Juan, as well as watch the Correfoc (meaning “fire-runs”). I had never heard about the festival until a few days ago when, at dinner, my host mother explained it to me. We were at the table and she began telling me something about demons and fire, which at the time was about as much as I picked up on. I caught the feeling that it was a big celebration by the way my host brother reacted to the conversation (I believe it was the first year that my host brother was allowed to go see the demons in action). I completely forgot about that conversation until today when our program leaders laid out the plans for the San Juan festival. Once I got home I had a few hours to relax before it was time for things to begin. At around nine o’clock, my family and I went to meet up with one of my host mother’s friends who also happened to be hosting one of our very own CIEE students, Emil. As we walked to the Cathedral, Emil and I began to come up with some wild ideas as to what the demons would be doing and where they would go after the festival was over (Do they crawl into the sewers and live an underground life until it is time for the Correfoc?). Once we arrived at the Cathedral we sat down on some steps and ate a quick meal which consisted of empanadas, chips, and oreos. Around this time is when the sky began to turn black and people started to pour in for the celebration. My host mother and her friend gave us a bit of history and prepared us for the festival as we walked to get to where things would go down. There were a lot of people, and I mean a LOT of people, crowded outside the cathedral ready for the demons to arrive and for the flames to be lit. Emil and I found a good spot within the crowd and waited for things to begin. Then, it began...the demons were all in order, some were standing above with fireworks in hand, while others were right in front of us waiting to light some sort of dragon. All at once, the crowd was illuminated by the bright lights of pyrotechnics. They had a big dragon strapped with fireworks of all kinds and the demons uptop were waving around sticks that had sparks flying out the ends. I’m going to be honest and say I have no idea how long anything went on for that night, but it felt as though they had an endless supply of fireworks.

I vividly remember the demons holding these sort of firework-like sticks that they constantly replenished as they walked, I seriously thought that they would never run out. Once the first dragon was done, they lit another. As the festival went on, the crowd shifted positions and began to follow the flame-carrying demons. The night went on and the demons reached their final destination as the crowd eagerly gathered around them. It was at this time that I saw a group of teenagers with blinking crowns off in the distance and wondered who they were, and guess what, it was my friends from the program who had met up earlier to come to the festival. Emil and I stayed with them for the rest of the night as demons ran around and the endless sounds of cheers and explosions rang through the sky. Even after the last firework and gone out, there was more festival to be had. A concert began as soon as the fire devils were done, but it was time for my host family and I to leave. It was an incredible night. Correfoc is something that I will most likely never experience again but am so thankful that I got the opportunity to witness during my time in Mallorca.