February 3th 2024
Dera Gai
An Aruban tradition celebrated every year on June 24. History tells that San Juan festivities originated on the South part of Mexico and came down to Guatemala and other countries in Central America reaching Venezuela and passed down to Aruba.
It is a custom brought by the missionaries who evangelized the villages, by introducing a tradition for the remembrance to the sacrifice of apostle San Juan Bautista, who according to the Biblical history was decapitated by order of King Herodes, since he liked princess Salomé.
When the Spanish ruled the island, they brought a couple of missionaries to educate the locals about Christianity. The place they started to preach is where the Alto Vista Chapel is situated now. The first 2 missionaries are still to be found buried on the right front side of the chapel entrance. The missionaries allowed the natives by then to preserve some of their pagan celebrations like Dera Gai, Dande and the Carnival. That is why they combined the harvesting celebration with Saint John day.
Aruba celebrates San Juan in a unique way. San Juan festivities in the early times had to do more with superstition, mainly because the natives believed in spirits and several Gods, and they were very afraid of them. In order to be in the good grace of the Gods and spirits, they had to make several offerings. One of these was for the harvest. The purpose of the festival of harvest was to thank the many Gods for the good harvest year and to request them to bless the harvests for the following year.
It is said that in early days cunukeronan (coo-noo-ker-o-nan, Aruban farmers), after harvesting, stored the trunks of the several plants like corn and other types of wood so that they could be burned on San Juan (Saint John’s Day). The farmers would then burn the woods on the night before San Juan as well as throughout the day. Fire means purification and it scares away bad luck resulting in a better harvest the following year.
During these festivities, women are dressed with long yellow dresses and yellow hair holders dancing in a choreographed manner. The musicians are dressed in yellow or red with a colorful band tightened on their hips. The instruments used consist mostly of drums and other noisemaker devices. While the music plays, the dancer has to hit the rooster, but the stick is not to touch the ground, or he loses his turn. This is done to symbolize the three times the rooster sang when Saint Peter lied about not knowing Jesus, according to the bible.
