against the evil spirits.
Another part of the San Juan ritual is to go into the sea afterwards. This tradition is based on another aspect of the ritual which is about medicinal plants and it used to be that women who wanted to be fertile went into the sea until they have been washed by nine waves.
Nowadays lots of people go into the sea and it is considered to be a cleansing of the year and washing away for the coming year.
Traditionally women collected medicinal plants on the eve of St. Johns. Depending which part of Spain they were in these would vary however the majority would include fennel, rosemary, lemon verbena, rue, fern, elder flowers, foxgloves and laburnum. These plants would then be arranged in a bunch and hung in the doorways of their homes in some parts of Spain. In many parts of Spain they were dipped in a water vessel and then left outdoors to be exposed to the night dew until the following mornings when they would then be used to wash their faces.
Another aspect of this ritual was that it was believed that the properties of the plants were more potent if they were dipped in water from seven different springs. Even though there are some small differences in rituals it can be said that many, and including these of San Juan, are based on wishes for health, youth and beauty-the importance of medicinal plants, protection for evil spirits or bad luck-the protection of fire to ward off these forces and to feel purified or born afresh-the miraculous effects of water or a modern day I