Mount Canigou in the Pyrenées

This mountain has symbolical significance for Catalan Nationalist Groups. On its summit there is a cross that is often decorated with the Catalan flag. Every year on the 23d June, the night before St. John's day (nit de Sant Joan), there is a ceremony called "Flama del Canigó where a fire is lit at the mountain top. People keep a vigil during the night and take torches, lit on that fire, in a spectacular torch relay to light bonfires somewhere else. Some estimates conclude that about 30,000 bonfires are lit in this way, all over Catalonia, during the night

Photographer:

Lesley Shaw