Las Fallas: Valencia, Spain

March 17, 2013

Las Fallas: Valencia, Spain

What an awesome 24-hour experience! Las Fallas, a street festival in Valencia, Spain, was by far one of the most interesting and amazing things I have experienced. After reading about this festival in my Spanish classes and travel guides, I am thrilled to say I have attended Las Fallas in person.

Las Fallas takes place in Valencia, Spain, a five and a half hour bus ride up the coast from Almeria. This festival originated from carpenters taking their wood scraps once the winter months were over and burning them on the feast of Saint Joeseph (March 19^th), the patron saint of carpenters. Overtime this gradually escalated to the burning of wooden boxes and figures, called fallas, which were depictions of the events from the last year. In present day the figures are made of firecracker filled cardboard, a cork like material or paper mache that can be made to stand 30 meters high, which are all painted beautifully. The present day fallas are more satirical scenes in relation to the government and recent events.

Satire of the European Union putting all of its money into spain (the toilet).

This year the festival takes place from March 15^th – March 19^th. Everyday is packed full of events spread all over the city beginning at 8:00am with La Despertà (the wake up call), where bands march throughout the streets followed by people throwing firecrackers. We did not arrive in to time see this event, but did make it for the Mascletà that began at 2:00pm. This event resulted in incredibly packed streets all over the city waiting for the clock to chime and the firecrackers to begin. We saw the biggest Mascletà in Valencia, and it was a ten minute show of incredibly loud firecrackers that made one feel as if they were in battle. Due to the large buildings and tight streets the sounds echoed all over the city. Click here to see the Mascletà that I experienced.

Waiting for the Mascleta. The giant woman is one of the fallas.

Once we scrambled our way through thousands of people, we had lunch in a plaza near the library where I sat in awe that extremely young children were lighting and throwing firecrackers. Parents were not helping or overseeing their children and their safety, but rather the children were playing with these firecrackers like it was normal. This danger gave me an on-edge feeling for most of the day since everywhere we walked people are lighting and throwing firecrackers. At first I would always jump at the sound, but by the end of the day I became used to the constant “boom”.

Little boy playing with firecrackers

The rest of the day consisted of roaming the gorgeous Valencian streets and admiring all of Las Fallas. Each big falla is accompanied by a smaller falla, called “falla infantil”. There are over 600 hundreds fallas in total, meaning that after walking for about 10 hours through the city we did not even come close to seeing one fourth of them. Click here to view a website providing information and pictures of the festival.

One of the main Fallas. It depicted different nationalties. The US is the black man in the lakers shirt.

Aladin

The atmosphere of the festival was something I had never experienced. The streets were filled with people, sometimes making it hard to walk. There were churro stands at every street corner, since this is the food of Las Fallas. We watched them hand-make the churros before buying some fresh from the fryer. Parades were constant throughout the day, and would come up out of nowhere. They consisted of men and women of all ages walking in Las Fallas costumes throughout the streets accompanied by a band. At the end of the festival, “Las Falleras” (the participants) will be ranked, similar to a beauty pageant. The women’s outfits were amazingly intricate and their hair was done up in a very complex hairstyle.

Las Falleras

The traditional hairstyle of Las Falleras

At night overhead hangings of lights came on and illuminated the street, giving the festival a whole new feel. There were two streets with light structures as tall as the buildings that created a magical world that outdid the United State’s light displays at Christmas. Under these lights were street vendors, churros and more of the Fallas displays.

Churro stand and lights

Lights paved the street

Lights surrounding a falla

To end the night we gathered at a huge plaza to view a spectacular firework show called Els Castells. This show rivaled any fireworks display I have seen in the United States. With each night of the festival, the firework show becomes more grand, leading to the final show on the night of March 19^th. This night the show is called La Nit del Foc (the night of fire). After the final firework show, all of the fallas throughout the city are lit on fire, known as La Cremà. The fallas are wired with fireworks that are lit first and then followed by their torching. This burning is where Las Fallas get their name because “falla” is derived from the latin word “torch”.

Fireworks!

The lighting gives way to people dancing in the streets to the sound of firecrackers rather than music. This festival is truly an amazing showcase of artwork and culture that I am so grateful to have experienced. I was hoping to see the structures actually lit on fire, but that will take place this coming Tuesday, March 19^th. I am almost sad to know that such beautiful displays will be burned, but the burning symbolizes the liberation from these past events.

Some more photos from the trip: