Ice cream and Saint Jean preparations

Tradition has it that, on the eve of Saint-Jean, certain flowers and herbs are gathered to bring good luck and protection. A typical bouquet consists of immortelle, jelly bean plant, walnut and St John’s wort! While I was eating my birthday ice cream in the café, a team of locals was preparing the Saint Jean bouquets. On this day, habits and customs are respected. There are three days of festivities in the village. Tonight the Catalan human pyramid team will be making a four or five story human pyramid on the village square. Many of the Catalan villages on the slopes of the Canigou mountain north and south of the border are taking faggots to the peak to burn at midnight tonight.
The flame will then be taken back to all the villages so a fire can be lit in the village square. The flame is kept burning permanently all year round in the Castillet fortress in Perpignan.