In March 2014 my family and I went to visit my uncles, they live in Valencia, a city in Spain. I was fascinated by the weather, which was very cold because it was winter – a wonderful difference from the infernal heat of my town – and by the place’s architecture, that seemed like an incredible mix between baroque and modern. My uncles received us with lots of love and showed us the city with a quick tour. 

   I found it quite interesting that even though technically Valencia is a Spanish city, most of its inhabitants spoke their own language: Valencian, a dialect more or less comparable to Catalonian in Catalonia. Everything was in Valencian: road signs, posters, signs, store names in the streets. And when you spoke to a local in Spanish, they looked daggers at you and answered begrudgingly in Spanish. 

   Nevertheless, my uncles told us we had arrived at the perfect timing to behold the biggest and most important local festivities in the year (yes, more than Christmas)…the FALLAS.  

   They’re sculptures made from wood, paper, hard cardboard and other flammable materials (uh-huh, wait for it). Generally they touch on a topic from actual society in the form of satire or critic. Each neighborhood has a Fallera Commission, whose goal is to spend the whooooooole year gathering funds to design and create these marvelous sculptures (which can go from 1m of height to easily 40m), paint them, decorate them, exhibit them, compete for the first place prize of Best Falla, and burn them…Yes, you read right, BURN THEM TO THE GROUND. All the hard year-round work of hundreds of people, burnt. Well, that’s tradition for ya. And I had the honor to be a part of it.   

     These are the small sculptures that always decorate the fallas. Generally an adult falla is composed of a huge central figure which is surrounded by several ninots that complement it. There’s an exhibition of these ninots before placing them on their respective fallas and I had the opportunity to go and see them all.

    The fallera week starts from MArch 15th, but the proper event as such starts much earlier, from the beginning of MARCH. It’s tradition that in the weeks leading to the fallas, mascletas are held every Saturday at 2pm (and then every day during the fallera week). This consists of a firecracker show that lasts approximately 10 minutes. But these aren’t just your regular bangers. The HARDER they clast the better. Hundreds of people gather at the Ayuntamiento Plaza to watch (or rather, to hear) the show.

    Like I told you before, strictly speaking the fallera week starts on March 15th, with the planta of the fallas. The planta is simply to plant or to place the fallas in the space where they will be exhibited and where they are going to be evaluated: in their corresponding neighborhood. Each commission puts an adult falla and a child falla (up to 3m high). This last one has topics that are a bit more accessible for kids. There they will spend 4 days, during which the judges will see each falla and pick the best to give it the first place. At present there are more than 800 fallas being “planted”.

    Each commission has a fallera mayor and a fallera menor (one woman, one girl). On March 17th and 18th every commission unites, with their falleras and falleros, dressed with their typical fallero outfits. They walk in a TREMENDOUS parade through the main streets of Valencia (with musical bands and everything), to get to the Plaza de la Virgen. There stands a representation of the Virgen de los Desamparados (Virgin of the Helpless). It’s a huge sculpture with the Virgin’s head, but a hollow body made of metal rods. The reason? Each fallera in the parade carries a red or white rose and when they get to the Virgin, they put the flowers at her feet as an offering. From there, the artist in charge of the Virgin’s cloak’s design that year starts threading the flowers on the sculpture carefully, to finish with a cloak solely made of flowers. The final design is spectacular. 

     Since no commission wants its streets and consequently their fallas to be left in the dark, they put up lots of light decorations in every nook of Valencia to lead the crowd to their neighborhood. But some of them just go all out, much more than others.  

     The pyrotechnical shows, as you already witnessed with the mascleta, are the joy of these valencians. But seeing as those are during the day, they need another one for the night! Here is where the Fire Castles come into play. They are firework displays filled with sound and colour and always have a thunderous and magical ending. The most impressive one is held on March 18th in a spectacle called Nit de Foc (night of fire).  

    On the 19th, after the first place is given to the adult and child fallas, the crema happens (which I guess means the cremation or burning). This is the only part of the festivities that I don’t get, but the one that the locals seem to anticipate the most. The fallas are put over a crapload of sand so that the fire doesn’t burn the asphalt and they always have a firefighter squad nearby ready for any emergencies. The fallas that win first place get burnt last. The fallera mayor is the one who lights the fuse which is going to burn their beautiful sculptures. They always cry when they do this. I understand them, but it’s a beautiful thing to watch nonetheless. 

     I hope you liked it and that you learnt about these wonderful festivities held in Valencia. Everything I explained was from a combination between my memory (which sucks big time) and the official fallas website. There are other really cool things about the fallas that I didn’t talk about but are rather interesting: