Johannisfeuer

St. John’s Fires is the annual celebration of the summer solstice in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (and other German towns). The practice has been going on since the 14th century, although it’s probably the continuation of an ancient pagan tradition.

These are what the mountains we look at from our Airbnb normally look like:

On that day, Monday June 23, thunderstorms threaten the event

But … little by little … the fires appear

More and more

We see a hand on one mountain

A cross on another

The cross is complete.

There is no vast coordination of these fires. Each group does its own thing. We were thrilled by these fires. We don’t know how people get up on the mountains to start the fires. But, especially when it seems like tariffs, wars, discrimination and famine threaten to remove the light from the world, there are groups of people who honor an age-old tradition of restoring light to it.