The night of San Juan dawns one more year among tons of garbage

The summer solstice has the habit of bringing a night of celebration throughout the northern hemisphere: the night of the bonfires of San Juan.In midnight from June 23 to 24, the day of the birth of San Juan Bautista, begins to burn fire in the fires on the banks of the sea.

Since time immemorial, the pagan tradition turned on thousands of bonfires on the night of the summer solstice, on the 21st, to send strength to the sun in its passage towards the increasingly short days and its lower presence in the sky.The reason why it is currently celebrated on the 24th is because Christianity adapted the pagan tradition to its calendar, to take it to the birth of San Juan Bautista.

The bonfire was born as a magical day, in which the fire tried to scare the evil spirits and break the bad of the year.From the burning of ancient belongings, it has come to this day to burn, get rid, of bad times and ask for wishes, either by jumping the bonfires or bathing in the sea.

The solstice night is celebrated linked to fire throughout the geography, but its traditions change according to the town where it is celebrated, since in those of Celtic tradition, the noite Meiga is also linked to the water.In other places of Levante, such as Catalonia, pyrotechnics acquires prominence.But it is in Alicante where he reaches his culmination with the burning of the monuments created especially for that magical night.Meanwhile, the southern hemisphere celebrates the party of the Inca Sun God, Inti Raymi, which welcomes winter with parties in nature, whether beach or mountain.

Another year, the same bleak image

The popularization of the night of San Juan has been acquiring a less magical tone due to the hundreds of tons of garbage and plastics with which, every year, our beaches dawn and whose environmental impact the media holders cup.

In Barcelona alone, twenty tons of garbage have been collected this morning.But the plague extends to dozens of cities such as A Coruña, Valladolid, Malaga, Cádiz and, above all, Alicante.Throughout our geography, garbage is another year the protagonist of tonight, despite the efforts of cleaning services, which even distribute garbage bags to all those who arrive on the beaches during the night.

However, there are several municipalities that announce that this year the level of garbage has been less than that of previous years.Awareness messages bulge every year on social networks calling for action and, after the expected night, arrives the alluvion of criticism for the stamp left on the beaches.

Live tides and social networks?

The hashtag #sanjuan comes today accompanied by the word garbage and dantesque images of the beaches of our geography.Initiatives like #Sanjuanyorecojo or #Cuidatusplayas rise asking anyone who wants to enjoy tonight to collect their garbage before leaving the beach.

Following the recent World Ocean Day, the UN recalled that there are already around 13 million tons of plastic that are filtered in the oceans every year.And it is that to the environmental impact that already has the shores full of garbage, the fact that this date of the calendar often coincides with live tides in different parts of the peninsula, which means that the rapid climbAll the garbage is in the tide of the tide before the cleaning services have been able to collect it.

Among the recommendations so that this party does not become a horrible environmental footprint, various organizations ask to eliminate the plastic of those objects that we take to the beaches and replace it with bags or cardboard or biodegradable packaging, as they have already launched initiatives they offeredThese bags.With special zeal in plastics and cigarette butts, environmental organizations ask that waste, if they can not be avoided, are conveniently recycled so that this feast of nature does not become another footprint of our impact on our impact on our impact on our impact on our impact on our impact on our impact on our impact on our impact on the planet.