Tonight across Latin America and Brazil there is a big-time celebration going on. In the ancient times this would be celebrated as The Winter Solstice/Summer Soltice (depending in which hemisphere you live).
There will be lots of parties, fireworks and bon-fires tonight!!!
This is not going to be much of a diary because I have to go teach a class and then go dancing in the street because it's party time!!!!
Here in Brazil it is known as "A noite de São João" and in the rest of Latin America La fiesta de San Juan. São João/San Juan = St. John, for those who are not Portuguese/Spanish speakers. São João makes part of a month of religiously themed festivals called the Festas Juninas or the June Festivals. In this month Brazil celebrates Santo Antonio, São Pedro, São João and São José in a relatively short time. Some places, and especially in the Northeast where I live, Festas Juninas is a big deal. Some municipalities dedicate the whole month to sponsored parties for the public with bands playing live music and other cultural attractions.
São João/San Juan in particular are marked by bonfires and fireworks across Latin America. When I lived in Bolivia the locals in Cochabamba would set tires on fire, which really sucked because 5,000 tire fires in one city causes a whole lot of respiratory problems, but in my country town of Comarapa it was only wood, no tires. Here in Brazil the locals are content with sticks and logs, fireworks and lots of cachaça, liquor made from sugar cane.
What makes Festas Juninas fun and São João in particular so much fun are the cultural manifestations, like the dancing of the "Quadrilha". Quadrilha is a Brazilian version of English Contra dancing in which couples in brightly colored costumes, often with specific imagery associated with each couple, such as corn, the sun, rain, rivers, the soil etc., dance in pairs and circle in rounds in a highly animated, dizzying frenzy. Forró music is the traditional music most highly associated with Festas Juninas in Brazil but I'm sure each country has its own folk music associated with San Juan.