Sant Joan, the patron saint of noize

You know the old hymn, usually sung plainsong:

That good old Saint John

And all his boys

They baptise by fire

They brings the noize

Yes, tomorrow is Saint John's day, known in these parts as Sant Joan. To celebrate the great Baptist's special day, the pagans of Catalonia like to set-off fireworks and firecrackers, along with jumping over bonfires (which apprently exorcises the devil and scares away witches). The Cerdanyola massive (Gemma and I) will be having our traditional barbecue (accompanied by huge clouds of gunpowder smoke and the constant risk of being hit by falling, burning detritus), before we descend to the Plaça and chuck some of our Super Dinamit at the local kids.

If you're not into pagan fire ceremonies, you might like to follow the Guardian's live coverage of the situation in Zimbabwe. They obviously seem to think that something's going to happen.

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