Throughout June, peaking on the night of the 23rd to the 24th, Asunción's schools, clubs, parishes and neighborhood committees put on their own "San Juan." There are traditional games such as pelota tata (a flaming rag ball that gets kicked around), tata ári jehasa (walking barefoot over hot coals), toro candil (a "bull" with blazing horns), kambuchi jejoka (breaking a clay pot while blindfolded) and the burning of the Judas kái effigy. Between polkas and guaranias, people feast on chipa, mbeju (a crisp cassava-starch and cheese flatbread), pastel mandi'o (fried cassava-dough turnovers), butifarra sausage and other winter treats.

The feast of Saint John the Baptist, on June 24, arrived with Spanish colonization and in Paraguay blended with local rural traditions. Today it's one of the best-loved folk celebrations of winter, repeated across the country throughout June.