Library Talks | Acqua Di San Giovanni: An Italian Midsummer Ritual with Amy Gulick

On Saint John’s Eve, Italian women practice a fascinating ritual known as Acqua di San Giovanni, or Saint John’s Water. This infusion of plants and flowers, selected for their curative properties and symbolic associations, is left out overnight on June 23 to selenare—to bask in the light of the moon and absorb its energies—and then used the following morning for bathing. Practiced predominantly by women, l’acqua is a highly personal ritual in which bodily-centred concerns such as healing, invigorating, and beautifying the self converge at a point in the yearly cycle traditionally marked for match-making, courting, and mating. Many women enjoy the sensory element of preparing l’acqua and do so for its extraordinary scent and its tactile and visual appeal. 

This talk will contextualiSe the Acqua di San Giovanni ritual within a discussion of ancient and contemporary Italian Midsummer observances and greater European (including Cornish) folkloristic traditions around Saint John’s Eve: bonfires and fire-smoke purification, divination rituals, bonding rites, and worship of the Baptist. It will include numerous images of l’acqua and note the plants and flowers most commonly used in its preparation

Amy Gulick is a writer and writing professor based in Tuscany, where she has been researching Italian Midsummer traditions for over a decade. She writes about Italian festivity, folkways, and feast days at WriteousFolk.com (Instagram: @writeousfolk) and manages a Facebook page dedicated to Acqua di San Giovanni.

Tickets are allocated by a ballot system. Please email enquiries@morrablibrary.org.uk or call 01736 364474 to be entered into the ballot for a ticket. The ballot closes on Monday 9th June.

Entry to this event is free but donations are welcomed to help support The Morrab Library (suggested £5). Refreshments will be provided after the talk.