Las Fallas - Valencia
If you are in Valencia from 15th to the 19th of March each year, you will
undoubtedly have gone there for the sole purpose of witnessing one of the most
incredible festivals in a country where incredible festivals are the norm rather
than the exception.
But, however prepared for Las Fallas you think you are, you will still be
surprised by the sheer craziness of it all.
St Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, is the official focus for the
festival. It all started back in the Middle Ages when carpenters used to hang up
planks of wood called parots in the winter to support their candles when they
were working. At the onset of spring these pieces of wood would be burned, as a
way of celebrating the end of dark winter working days. After a while, they
began to put clothing on the parot, and then started to try to make it
identifiable with a well-known local personality. These became the forerunners
of the contemporary ninots, the enormous cardboard, wood, polyurethane,
Styrofoam, cork, plaster and papier maché figures of today. The authorities
later decided to link the burning of the parots with Saint Joseph’s Day – to try
to stop it getting out of control!.
Nowadays, each neighbourhood has an organised committee, the casal faller, who
raise the necessary finances for constructing the ninots. There is even an area
of the city, ciutat fallera, where whole groups of workers and designers spend
months creating all the incredible towering tableaux. The ninots, which are
placed at key places throughout the city, are nowadays often cruel satirical
lampoons of well-known Spanish and international celebrities or politicians.
If you decide to go to Valencia, prepare for an early start. Every day of the
Fallas begins with a startling wake-up call, La Despertà, at the ridiculous time
of 8 a.m. You’ll just love being woken by brass bands marching down the streets
accompanied by those preposterously loud firecrackers; which themselves activate
car and shop alarms – just to make sure you’re ready for a day’s fun.
All day, you’ll see processions and hear explosions and then at 2 in the
afternoons, La Mascletà, begins – when there are organised pyrotechnical
explosions all over the city, especially in the Plaza Ayuntamiento. You will
think they are earth-shattering; but they’re just an appetizer for what will
come later.
On each night there is a firework display in the old river bed and they escalate
in degrees of spectacle until the final night, 19th March, the Night of Fire –
La Nit de Foc. This is the famous event when the enormous creations are
destroyed. Neighbourhoods will have their own falla infantile for the children
at about 10 in the evening and then, at around midnight, the neighbourhood
fallas will begin. The final, grandest fire, in the main square, Plaza
Ayuntamiento, won’t get under way until 1 am at the earliest. The ninots will
all have been stuffed full with fireworks, the street lights switched off and
the bomberos will be in position when the 20 to 30 foot models, which took
months of painstaking construction, will be razed to the ground. Each year, one
ninot is spared the ordeal – as a result of a public vote: the rest suffer a
spectacular fate.
However loud you think this is going to be – you’ll be wrong. There is no way of
beginning to describe the amount of noise generated. Pregnant women are
forbidden from attending and each year people are injured or faint. It is true
that you should keep your mouth open to allow the sound to escape and not echo
around your head – or something like that – but be prepared to feel the ground
shake beneath your feet and your head to spin uncontrollably. This is an
adrenaline rush with few equals and a completely unique experience.
And please don’t think you can rest up during the day to prepare yourself for
the evening’s bombardments. After you’ve been unceremoniously startled awake at
8 o’clock, the whole of Valencia is one enormous street party, with various
parades, pageants, beauty shows, paella competitions and bullfights all over the
city.
Hotels in Valencia and the surrounding areas sell out many months before the
Fallas festivals so be sure to book your
Valencia hotel
well in advance.
Our final tip – make sure you don’t ever book to go back to work on March 21st:
you’ll need at least two days rest and relaxation before you can even think
about it!
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