San Juan Holiday

Yesterday, my family and I had a great time celebrating a Spanish holiday: San Juan!

So what is San Juan anyway? And why does Bolivia celebrate it?  Originally, it was a Celtic holiday that celebrated the beginning of summer. When Europe was evangelized, the Catholics changed the pagan celebration to a Christian holiday named after the Catholic saint San Juan (Saint John). The Spanish came to South America, and they changed the Incan holiday called the "Inti Raymi" (Sun's celebration) to the traditional San Juan holiday. To this day, Bolivia celebrates San Juan to mark the winter solstice.

Just how does Bolivia celebrate San Juan? People throw big parties at night, eating hot dogs and Bolivian pastry. My family and I enjoyed playing with "estrellitas." These "stars" are made of thin wire with  burnable stuff coated on half of the wire. When we stepped outside, my mom lit a match and used it to ignite a few of our "stars." The tips sparked and fizzled; they looked like tiny, exploding stars! We had a lot of fun that night!