Florence, 24 June 2024 – La feast of St. John the Baptist it is rich in very particular rites, such as the water of San Giovanni with beneficial properties. In Florence the custom of the so-called is very widespread boat of San Giovanni.
A jug is filled with water, it is poured of egg whiteor, without mixing, and let it rest all night outdoors, to allow the dew of this magical night to do its work. Then in the morning you look at the shape it has taken, every furrow and puega could reveal clues about the future and luck. But how do you read the shapes of the boat? If the sails seem to be unfurled, the season will be beautiful and sunny, if they are closed there will be no shortage of rain. If the shape resembled an egg it will be there an imminent pregnancy, if everything has taken the shape of a tower then soon there will be a change of residence, if bubbles appear the wedding is upon us.
If instead the shape of a appears boat, a journey is about to begin or in any case a new experience is coming. In the morning you can interpret the drawing obtained, similar to a ship, to know the future. The more numerous and unfurled the sails of the boat, the more abundant the harvest will be. The water of San Giovanni. On the evening of June 23rd, the water of San Giovanni is prepared, which is done by collecting the dew – which symbolizes the Moon – with which to wash hands and face on the morning of June 24th. To obtain this water, prepare a mixture of spontaneous herbs and flowers in a bowl, collected strictly after sunset, such as St. John’s Wort, lavender, mugwort and mallow, mint flowers and leaves, rosemary and sage, to which it is possible to add cornflower, poppy, rose or chamomile petals, based on the blooms in the area. Placed in water, they are left outside all night, so that they can absorb the morning dew.
According to tradition, dew gives extraordinary powers to water, which can be used to wash your face. In this way it will protect against diseases, misfortunes and envy. Love and marriage. Many rituals are linked to the possibility of finding a husband, or knowing who he will be or what he will be like, whether rich or poor. In certain areas, before falling asleep, girls usually pray to Saint John to show them the face of their future partner in a dream; others say that if a girl a midnight will look in the mirror, she will see his face reflected next to her. Even placing a bunch of bay leaves under the pillow helps you dream of the face of your future love.
Always linked to matters of the heart and engagements, it is the ritual rag dolls, filled with St. John’s herbs, which mothers give to their daughters to wish fertility. There is also another custom: if a single girl burns a thistle on the evening of the 23rd and the next day it is still green, then a man will soon arrive to ask for her hand. Then, there’s the rite of the three beans, which when wrapped and placed under the pillow will give the next morning the measure of how rich the husband will be. At midnight, take three broad beans: remove the peel completely from the first, remove half the peel from the second, and leave it intact from the third. Wrap the three beans like sweets with three identical papers, put them under the pillow and sleep on them. In the morning, picking one at random, if the peel is whole it means that you will meet a rich husband, a wealthy husband with half a peel and a poor one without the peel. Finally, a legend says that only at midnight sharp, a fern plant that grows along streams flourish: whoever manages to pick this flower will acquire the reputation of being wise and the ability to read the past and predict the future.
Maurizio Costanzo
