Saint John's Night Bonfire by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Saint John’s Night Bonfire by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

On the last day of school at my daughter Florence’s Waldorf School in Pacific Grove (California) before summer vacation, parents were invited to an optional Saint John’s Night Bonfire at Carmel River State Beach on June 23^rd.

The Carmel River drains into the Pacific Ocean at this spot.  Bonfire nights like the one for Guy Fawkes Night in England (November 5^th) and those for Saint John the Baptist (June 23^rd) are held in areas with Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran populations in Europe and in Monterey County in Carmel, California by streams and rivers.

There is no mysterious reason for this location for bonfires.  Dead wood, leaves, reeds, and branches accumulate at river and stream mouths and can be used as kindling, which clears these areas of debris in the process.

Participants at a Saint John’s bonfire hold hands and dance around the bonfire in a circle.  Brave participants are expected to leap over the bonfire to show their fearlessness.

After working up an appetite dancing and fire jumping, participants eat taffy apples and drink mulled wine as they watch fireworks.

I did not want to jump over a bonfire, but thought I could handle making taffy apples.

I told Florence about Saint John’s Night as we headed to Safeway Supermarket in Del Rey Oaks to buy taffy apple items; This Safeway has everything and more to choose from down its many aisles.

Florence said, “Jumping over a fire is dangerous.”

“Especially in shorts,” I added

Safeway sold square sheets of caramel that you wrapped around apples and microwaved before sticking them with a wooden stick for eating.

At home, we made taffy apples and did a Saint John’s Night craft project.

I took out a paper plate and had Florence color it black for soil.

Then, I drew branches on brown construction paper, and had Florence cut those out.  She pasted these on the paper plate.

Next, I gave Florence a piece of flat crêpe paper to squeeze together and make into a flame, which she pasted to the branches on the paper plate.

Now that we had a bonfire, I told Florence the story of John the Baptist, who fell in love with Salome, the dancing girl, who cut off his head and put it on a serving platter.

Florence wondered why he got to have a holiday.

I agreed and changed the subject.

“Does jumping over a flame remind you any Mother Goose rhymes?” I asked.

Florence thought a moment and said:

Jack be nimble,

Jack be quick,

Jack jumped over

the candlestick.

I wondered if that rhyme had been invented as part of a child’s celebration of Guy Fawkes Night.

I was glad some teaching moment in the past on Mother Goose had stuck in Florence’s mind like I hoped this one on Saint John’s Night would as we ate our taffy apples.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Note:

Teaching moments were a method used by Francis Fenelon, tutor of Louis XIV’s grandson, who also advised on the education of girls of noble birth.

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