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Donilatxa, the celebration tree

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Posted on 2022-06-24 in
Murgoitioko San Juan ermita. Berriz (Bizkaia). José Ignacio García Muñoz. Labayru Fundazioaren argazki artxiboa.

St John’s hermitage in Murgoitio. Berriz (Bizkaia). José Ignacio García Muñoz. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Between dawn and sunrise on St John’s Day, it is customary to place an oak or ash branch decorated with a bunch of herbs and flowers on front doors of houses and hermitages dedicated to the saint. Ears of wheat would also be added to the arrangement in earlier times, and a peeled splinter inserted in the wood of the branch to make a rustic cross. St John’s oak bouquet (sanjuan-haretxa, in Basque) is in point of fact a traditional symbol of the summer solstice.

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