Before you get all excited, no, I did not get to enjoy Las Fallas in Val\u00e8ncia on March 19, 2021. Why not? you ask… Hmm, that horrible plague that still has the world in its deathly grasp has managed to foil my plans to see and maybe even participate in this city’s greatest party. First a bus brought me here a day late and now this. I know I have mentioned Fallas before but this post is dedicated solely to the very little I know about them. Sorry. But here it goes, a little background on what I didn’t get to do (and if I’m repeating anything do let me know … my memory is going and all that…).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Las Fallas<\/strong><\/em> (or Falles<\/em> in Valenci\u00e1) is Val\u00e8ncia’s largest and most famous festival, and while its true origins are in some doubt, there are a few theories floating around. One suggests that it comes from a centuries-old Valencian tradition of the city’s carpenters burning leftover materials they no longer needed on the day before the day of St Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. Another one claims it has to do with the time of year, i.e. close to the equinox and celebrating the coming spring. Yet another stems from an old European tradition in which dolls or figures representing unwelcome or unliked people being hung from balconies and later burned. The latter theory certainly would go a long way to explain the satirical nature of the festival as it exists today. The truth is probably a combination of all three theories. In any case, the Fallas<\/em> go back to at least the second half of XVIII century when laws were brought in to set some rules about the festival. I’m sure the burning was going on long before then; we all know it can take governments a very long time to realize some controls to protect the public or property are necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The term fallas<\/em> has its roots in the word for ‘torch’, but over the years it has come be be associated specifically with a fire that was lit to burn ninots<\/em>, those satirical puppets or dolls representing famous and infamous personages. In the end the figures (or, more accurately, collections of figures) themselves have become known as fallas<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every year (when there isn’t a pandemic on) hundreds of thousands of people descend on this relatively quiet city, drawn to the festival like moths to a flame. The festival lasts five days, March 15 to 19, though festivities start a couple of weeks earlier. Val\u00e8ncia may be considered a relatively quiet city but these people LOVE their firecrackers and fireworks (ah, the smell of gunpowder in the morning) and the local government does everything in their power to provide a lot of noise daily leading up to the festival itself. Every day, at 2pm from March 1st on, you can witness the masclet\u00e0<\/em>, a thunderous firecracker show, at the Pla\u00e7a de l’Ajuntament and incredible fireworks displays every night during the festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the Fallas<\/em> proper start on March 15th, many roads are cut off to traffic so that the enormous ninots<\/em> can be set up in different parts of the city. This is called La Plant\u00e0<\/em> (or The Placing). These ninots<\/em> are huge and usually extremely lifelike creatures, depicting bawdy or satirical scenes and current events. Often they are combined or grouped to offer a multi-faceted story of each falla<\/em>. Over the next few days people have an opportunity to visit each site and admire the handiwork of the various casas falleras<\/em>, or each neighbourhood’s fallas<\/em> masters whose creations they are. Each year one of the ninots<\/em> is saved from destruction by popular vote and those end up in the Fallas<\/em> Museum, a place I’ve yet to visit. Of course the destruction of the fallas<\/em> is the best part of the whole festival and it happens on March 19th, known as La Crem\u00e0<\/em> (or The Burning). This day is also the biggest party of them all and if you live in Ciutat Vella, it is pretty much guaranteed you do not sleep a wink at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n