Happy Saint John's Eve / Fèt Ti Jean, y'all!
I come to you in the midst of preparations for a small celebration and ritual dedicated to Ti Jean (meaning Little John), who is simultaneously the child Saint John the Baptist and a Petwo lwa of (probably) Kongo origin. Therefore, forgive my brevity and lack of editing on this one!
Fèt Ti Jean is a Vodou festival that has connections across many cultures and traditions, and especially in the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean, where many of my known ancestors hailed from.
Fèt Ti Jean and Noche de San Juan are lined up with the summer solstice, when the entire northern hemisphere celebrates the longest day and shortest night of the year.
Specifically, in A Coruña, in Northeastern Spain-- right on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage road-- my paternal ancestors undoubtedly participated in this important night of purification, spellcasting, and celebration, although my father only retains vague memories of grilling mountains of sardines with his horde of Gallego extended family in Island Park, New York.
Just to be clear, I am speaking of the Galician tradition right now, not what is typically done for Ti Jean in Haitian Vodou houses . But I do want to put in that many Vodouisants, including my godmother, do not see a sharp separation between Vodou and other traditions. It is seen as a unified worldwide tradition with localized variations depending on where you're from. Looking through all the different variations is like looking through a kaleidescope of meaning, seeing the spiritual significance of the moment of the year from a multitude of angles at once. There will be differences, but also ritual and symbolic connections that will remind us how intertwined everything is. Sometimes they'll be historically explicable, sometimes they'll make sense based on shared human experience, and sometimes they'll just be a mystery. "They say things in spirituality but they don't say why," as my godmother just told me.
In A Coruña, a seaside town close to the modern day border of Spain and Portugal, bonfires are a prominent feature of Noche de San Juan. The church designates this as the day to properly dispose of any religious items in a bonfire of its own (this is a worldwide thing for Saint John, not just in Spain), but there are also bonfires on the beach for people to ritualistically jump over for their own purification. You have to jump over it an odd number of times, and the minimum number is 3. Another important feature of Noche de San Juan is a flaming drink called quemaida. A spell for protection against negative spirits is said over it while it's ablaze. You can read it here!
Ti Jean loves fire! When he comes down he dances right in the fire. My godmother insisted there must be a fire at his party, and when I told her about the flaming drink, she said that would be sufficient.
Ti Jean is the son of Ezili Dantò, the mother of our house. He sits beside her on my Petwo altar. Whenever I serve those spirits, and call out to Dantò for help as a single mother (for she is our patroness), I see Ti Jean at her side and think of my teenage son in his quest for autonomy and freedom. It's probably universal to all adolescents, that primal, fiery energy of youth and desire to be unfettered, not the least from the rules and regulations of society and their parents.
Often, Ti Jean is seen as not a child, but a dwarf. It's pretty common for Petwo spirits to have some kind of physical disfigurement, malformation or disability, a trait examined in detail in the book Born of Blood and Fire. Certain Ti Jean spirits in some houses, like Ti Jean Pyè Chech, are even seen as baka or goblins.
Just like his Vodou counterpart, the young John the Baptist is a wild child, living in the wilderness, feeding on locusts and wild honey, wearing skins.
About Ti Jean, my godmother Maggie says "He's not a Gede, but he's like a Gede," meaning he loves to dance and party and flirt. Another nod to his youthful, taboo-busting fieriness.
When he comes down in possession, he climbs a tree upside down "so he can get a good view of the girls" (according to my godmother). Some writers, like Maya Deren in Divine Horsemen and Karen McCarthy Brown in Mama Lola (she's my god-auntie, having been initiated by Lola, my godmother's mother), have connected Ti Jean with snakes because of this tree-climbing ability and the fact that he's seen as having one foot or zero feet.
It's traditional in my lineage to serve hard boiled eggs at Ti Jean's birthday, and it's important to have seven different cakes (a challenge we solved by making cupcakes- which Rachel artfully frosted in rainbow colors!)
Seven, as it turns out is a number that features in the Galician Saint John's Eve celebration! Seven distinct herbs are steeped in water from seven springs and then used to cleanse the body of all negativity.
One of the herbs is Saint John's Wort, a wild growing shrub with bright yellow flowers that is used to treat depression in modern herbalism. Incidentally, in our Vodou house, yellow is Ti Jean's color!
Bon Fèt Ti Jean, Buena Noche de San Juan, Happy Saint John's Eve, a Bright Midsummer, and a wonderful Solstice to all!
