Exorcists Association warns against letting the Devil in at the Night of the Witches

Dangerous Re-enactments: The Night of the Witches

"Saint John shows deception," goes a proverb. Faced with the countless events organized throughout Italy by municipalities, associations, and local tourist boards to celebrate the so-called "Night of the Witches" between June 23rd and 24th, the suspicion arises that the deception is convenient for too many and is not being dispelled at all. Indeed, the superstition appears institutionalized in a singular mix of local tourism, economic spin-offs, and "cultural dissemination." We then glimpse a further level, not even entirely in the background. Indeed, we can say that it is now explicit, publicized, and organized: the esoteric-occult level.

As the Emilia-Romagna Region's agriculture portal explains, San Giovanni was and remains one of the most important seasonal festivals in the rural world, and its purpose was to protect the harvest from destructive weather phenomena such as storms and drought. It coincides with the summer solstice, blending pagan beliefs and Christian rites in a millennia-long process of historical-religious adaptation that spread across Europe. And throughout the continent, for San Giovanni, it was an ancient custom among populations to light fires and gather wild herbs and flowers and leave them to steep in water all night, outdoors. Among these, St. John's wort—St. John's wort—stood out, to which a widespread superstitious mentality attributed the power of warding off evil spirits. On the morning of June 24th, the custom of washing hands and face with San Giovanni water, which the same superstitious mentality believed and still believes to be miraculous, was and still is deeply rooted.

The astronomical event of the solstice is of central importance, coinciding with the feast of John the Baptist (which will be followed exactly six months later by the celebration of the Birth of Christ, the Light of the World). As historian Franco Cardini explained, "the summer solstice coincides, in the Mediterranean world, with a fervor of activity: it is the time of harvest, the time of gathering the fruits of labor, the time of peaceful navigation thanks to the ordinarily calm sea. But it is also the time when food supplies, gathered and stored, begin to dwindle; and so, at the same time, the days grow shorter. In the anthropomorphic symbolism of the year, the summer solstice is comparable to the 'midway point' of human life: maximum vigor, bursting energy, but at the same time the peak beyond which strength slowly begins to decline and even the earthly days become shorter" (The Days of the Sacred. The Book of Feasts).

The Fires of Saint John in France, 19th century

Once upon a time, on the night of Saint John, the Roman people would make noise with bells, tambourines, trumpets, firecrackers, and fireworks to scare away witches and sorcerers, preventing them from gathering herbs for their spells. In fact, it was believed that witches gathered on the Lateran meadows, summoned by the damned souls of Herodias and her daughter Salome, responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist, and then roam the streets and squares of the city, deceiving mortals. At sunrise, a cannon shot from Castel Sant'Angelo announced the start of the Mass celebrated by the Pope in the Lateran Basilica.

Much water has passed under the bridges of the Tiber since those days, when superstitious beliefs were deeply rooted, but popular devotion was also alive and well, and with it, an awareness of certain spiritual dangers.

And today? We remain in the city, where this year too, in the Appio-Latino neighborhood, a stone's throw from the Lateran, the "Festa di San Giovanni – La Notte delle Streghe" (Feast of Saint John – The Night of the Witches) was celebrated, organized by a series of local associations with the contribution and collaboration of the Municipio Roma VII. Among the scheduled events: "Herbarie. They Called Them Witches," a theatrical tale that combined "female herbal knowledge" with the "ancient and powerful gesture of weaving." Then, on the night between June 23rd and 24th, a workshop was offered to prepare San Giovanni water with medicinal herbs collected in the fields "according to traditional practices." The grand finale was a dance performance among the flames, which lit up "the last night of the Feast with ancient suggestions and enchanted visions" (RomaToday.it, June 16, 2025).

In short, the usual recipe: the redemption of the dark ages and the condition of women, along with the emancipation of the lower classes or outcasts, while at the same time obscuring or, if necessary, overshadowing the Christian religious element and its devotional practice, within which popular and peasant culture had assimilated the pagan legacy.

While in Cilento, a local association organized a public meeting with a local elder to teach how to "remove the evil eye" on the night of San Giovanni, in a town in the Veronese mountains, like every year, the fire festival was greeted by costumed figures. On the shortest night of the year, dancing around braziers was supposed to chase away the darkness, banishing evil spirits, witches, and demons from ancient Northern legends.

We must remember that this type of event, beyond any "folklore" reenactment, can represent a risky revival of witchcraft and the world of magic because it proposes a reinterpretation of historical and religious events that attributes a cultural-recreational, and therefore positive, significance to esoteric and occult phenomena that Christian tradition deems problematic, if not dangerous. Local institutions throughout Italy that endorse, finance, and promote such events can become their instruments, sometimes unwittingly entrusting their organization to genuine occult operators (either because they masquerade as harmless associations, or because they operate more or less incognito), thus abolishing, in the name of a de facto obscurantist relativism, any distinction between good and evil. Believing that events of this kind can be enjoyable or even educational for the local population or tourists is a grave error.

The International Association of Exorcists, therefore, cannot ignore, given its pastoral and cultural vocation, the worrying recurrence of similar initiatives and condemns them on this occasion as it has done in the past.

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