The traditional San Juan bonfire will be lit again tonight in Neuquén in the Río Grande neighborhood. The event will include music, games and choripanes.
The night of San Juan – the summer or winter solstice – commemorates the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the shortest in the southern hemisphere. The tradition of this magical night, which leads to lighting bonfires in many towns and neighborhoods in the Basque country -Euskal Herria-, it is established in a good part of the Basque communities spread around the world.
In Neuquén this celebration takes place in the Río Grande neighborhood.
The activities will begin at 6 p.m. when Vehicular traffic will be cut off on Domene Street with the arrival of officials from the Undersecretariat of Children, Adolescents and Senior Citizens of the Neuquén Municipality.
“The idea is to do work on children’s rights and recreational games for children. We also want “The streets are prepared so that the children can play.”said the president of the Neighborhood Commission, Alberto Delloro.
The referent pointed out that from the Culture area of Neuquén a stage and sound will be installed so that they can be carried out recitals, especially by neighborhood boy bands.
“There will also be a group of older adults who are going to do folklore and in addition to the games we have planned,” he said.
Seeds and choripanes at the San Juan Bonfire
Delloro said that the activities take place in front of School 182, Jaime de Nevares, whose godfather is Quino. “At the beginning of the year, boys and girls from all grades, They make a proposal about what they want to put on top of the bonfire. One time it was Mafalda, another time it was school, another time it was books,” he said.
In this edition the kids proposed planting seeds. “In those seeds they put all their wishes as a schoolthat work was done on what we want to sow to then harvest,” he explained.
Finally after 8pm The choripanes will begin to be roasted while the lighting of the bonfire is broadcast live on Channel 7.
“We light the bonfire and then the choripanes come out, which are free.” for people who come to the neighborhood to enjoy it,” he concluded.
How the celebration was born in Neuquén
From the Neighborhood Commission of the Río Grande neighborhood they pointed out that the San Juan Bonfire began to be celebrated formally by the hand of the first director of the primary school, Daniel Pérez, who convened the educational community to remember the games and celebrations of their parents in their childhood. They were replicated in the green space in front of the schools, today called Plaza José Luis Fontenla.
It was José Luis who added this celebration to the primary school’s call and who set it up and helped keep it in the neighborhood. The primary school began its activities in 1987. and this celebration, which takes place on the winter solstice, has been carried out uninterruptedly and always successfully. Its only meaning is the encounter and community enjoyment.
