V O L U M E 1, I S S U E 1
St. John Festival, celebrated on June 24th, marks the anniversary of birth for St. John the Baptist, 6 months before Jesus’ birthday. The first part
Fiesta de San Juan EVE
of the festival is
People
St. John’ s Eve. This includes around a symbolic elements like fire, bon fire water, and medicinal plants. A bon fire is created and people jump over it. Water was said to have healing qualities and that medicinal plants are at there best when you put
them into water from 7 different springs. Women traditionally collect plants like rue, rosemary, and lemon verbena on St. John’ s Eve. On the Feast of St. John they gather a herb called St. John ' s Wort, which is said to keep evil away.
St. John’ s Wort
P A G E 2
Between June
St. John’ s Festival is celebrated with foods like, Chipa( a cheese bread), Payagua Mascada, Chicharo Trenzado, Mbeyu, Pastel Mandio, ect …
During the festival, people participate in different games and rituals. There’ s pelota tata, which is a fire ball that
Fiesta de San Juan
is kicked around a crowd. Burning a Judas Doll at midnight is also an option that is filled with fireworks. While the dolls are burning, they explode. There are also people who walk on hot coals but somehow manage not to get burnt and people who climb up greased posts for money. After the festival is over a weird phenomena occurs. Every year, the day after St. johns day,
Chipa the cold weather would start and the middle of September is winter in South America
Modern Paraguayan food is deeply influenced by Spain, but they do have there own twist because of the variety of crops found there. The 2 main base foods of Paraguayan cuisine are cassava and corn. Cassava is a root veggie that can also be identified
Paraguayan Food
as Yuca and Manioc. Cassava is used to make breads and cakes called Chipa. Corn is also important and is used in many different Paraguayan dishes like Bori Bori( a soup filled with beef, pork, corn, and assorted veggies). The main meal of the day is noon and it’ s a corn based meal.
Celecia Blyden