In days of old one of the most popular religious and at the same time profane feasts was St. John ‘s, that of the patron saint of the city, which was celebrated on 24th June.
The day actually began the night before on the so-called “Night of the Witches” when witches were said to be about ensnaring souls.
Leaving their homes scattered about Rome by lantern and torch light, the people then gathered in San Giovanni in Laterano (the Basilica of St. John Lateran) to pray to the saint and eat snails in inns and shacks. Eating snails, whose head horns or tentacles represented discord and distress, was tantamount to defeating adversity.
The people used to turn out in droves, eating and drinking to their fill and mainly making a din with their horns, trumpets, bells, tambourines and firecrackers of every shape and size so as to scare and ward off the witches, preventing them from gathering the herbs essential to concoct their spells.
The feast drew to a close at dawn when the Pope arrived at Saint John’s to celebrate mass, after which he threw from the cathedral’s loggia gold and silver coins, much to the delight of the frenzied crowds below.
Today, sadly, the traditional feast of Saint John has lost all of its early importance, although it has to some extent recently been revived with the organisation of a number of events.
