¡A festivity full of fire, flowers and faith!
So here I am, back in Valencia, lured by the promise of seeing the city ablaze every night for a week. And you know what? Although there are no actual flames (yet), I can feel the burning passion of the residents for their favorite festivity: Fallas.
While experiencing New Year’s Eve I heard someone say: “This is nothing, wait for Fallas”, that, combined with the seductive phrase “Everything burns for a week”, was more than enough to make me buy my ticket back the same day I left Valencia.
So, what is Fallas?
As many residents told me, it’s Valencia’s favorite celebration.
With over a month of preparation and a series of mini-celebrations leading up to a week full of firecrackers, fireworks, parades and churro stands on every damn corner (not that I am complaining about that though).
It’s a celebration that honors various traditions and has many possible origins (according to the internet), such as:
– A satirical representation of an old European tradition to burn humanoid figures.
– Celebrations related to equinoxes and solstices.
– Rituals of purification and burials.
But after speaking with many young and elder residents (the elder ones really tell these stories with such a lively light in their eyes, as if they have been waiting for someone to ask them about this), all the answers I got were the same:
It’s a celebration where carpenters burned the remaining wood scraps accumulated through the year announcing the end of the winter and it coincides with the feast day of their saint: St. Joseph (San José), known as the father of Jesus and a Carpenter (March 19th).
After a couple of years, people started adding old stuff they wouldn’t be needing anymore, or they used the fire as a mean to cleanse their minds and hearts of things that carried bad or harmful memories.
With the passing of time, people started putting together representations of theatrical plays with dressed humanoid figures (called ‘ninots’, the Valencian word for ‘doll’) that wore cardboard masks. These representations called ‘Fallas’ are nowadays judged and prized (before being burnt), which led artists (sculptors, carpenters, painters) to put a lot of effort and their personal touch on every one of them. It was in 1934 that a tradition of saving a ‘ninot’ from the winning Falla began, which was called ‘ninot indultat’ or “forgiven ninot” as part of the Fallas tradition.
Now comes the main week from march 14th to march 19th where every neighborhood association presents their different fallas (they have two sizes: kid and grown-up made ones) and the party starts.
Some of the celebrations happening during the main week are:
The Mazcletas
A brutal demonstration where multiple firecrackers are exploded at the same time (up to 400 kg of them) on a contained area (safety first). I wasn’t prepared for the amount of noise (or the amount of people), but with names like ‘ametralladoras’ (machine guns) and ‘terremotos’ (earthquakes) for the firecrackers, maybe I should’ve been warned that I might end up “hearing blurry” at the end.
Was my ability to listen worth it?
¡YES, YES AND YES! You can feel your heart beating to the rhythmic composition of this noisy artistic representation, while feeling the excitement around waiting for the last BOOM, after which, the separation gates are pulled down and people run to give a standing ovation to the company that put together the show. This happens every day from march 1st to march 19th at 14:00, being the last one the biggest and more representative.
The flower offering to the ‘virgen de los desamparados’ or, as Valencians call with love, ‘la Geperudeta’
A religious procession that happens the 17th and 18th of march, where all the ‘Falleras and Falleros’ wear representative clothing and carry offerings of carnations (claveles) to build up the mantle of the virgin.
It is amazing how everything is organized, with different building teams and every flower arrives just when it’s intended, creating an intricate and beautiful pattern on the mantle. You have to see all the devotion and faith falleras put on the offering they bring; it is one of the most significant moments during fallas.
Castillos nocturnos (night castles)
These are huge firework exhibitions that last for 10 minutes happening every night at midnight during the last week of Fallas. They are usually set up near specific places like the city hall or the city of arts and sciences. They conclude with the ‘Nit de Foc’.
Nit de Foc
The biggest firework exhibition of the year, which also announces the start of the last day of fallas (majoras mask vibes anyone?). It happens the 18th of march at midnight. It’s set up far away from the city center, near the city of arts and sciences, and lasts for 20 minutes straight. Impressive that it also involves burning 1500 kg. of gunpowder.
La noche de crema
Celebrated the night between the 18th and 19th of march, where all the fallas are burned down. It is a tradition kids light up the match for burning the small fallas, and grown-ups to do the same for the big ones, but there is one thing in common, tears.
You can feel the emotions running through each one of them, it’s like crying in the rain or during a concert (no one can see it but it makes your chest hurt in a nice way and feel way lighter afterwards). I was surprised by the logistic level the city puts into this, firefighters on every corner and with a lot of safety measures to prevent that things get out of control, and the day after it seems like nothing happened, a round of applause to all this hardworking people.
So, that’s it for the story lesson about the events in fallas, but now my perspective.
What was fallas for me?
Noise, colors, joy, tears and kids throwing explosives even though their hands were already bleeding and wrapped in bandages (I actually saw a girl doing so and thought about how brave she was, or irresponsible her parents were, but I don’t know if it’s fair to meddle when someone loves something).
It’s passion, faith, crowds and seeing impressive sculptures, that I don’t know if I would be able to, burn down (art is ephemeral I say, while admiring Valencians way of letting things flow).
It was the perfect chance to take some pictures and I was so lucky that a band invited me to take some pictures of their show! A shoutout to falla ‘MONTECARLO’. Thanks for the chance and I hope this get’s shared because you rock and you made my night!
And well last, but for sure the opposite of least: It’s playing like kids, writing and drawing silly things in the air with sparkling sticks (looked up for the name it’s sparklers).
Writing this next part might make some things weird but bring it on, I am being real on these pages:
The sparkles I saw in her eyes were much brighter than all the fireworks I have seen lighting up Valencia’s skies those nights… and her cheerful laugh, it made me tremble more than all the combined ‘ametralladoras’ and ‘terremotos’ of what they called ‘the biggest mascleta in the story of the city’.
For a second, some words almost slipped from my mouth, but all I could say was: “You are cool”.
I still don’t know where life will place me, but it seems every time I am about to leave Valencia my heart wrinkles in a way it hurts but it also gives me an excuse to return.
I hope that the next time I come back, the days are warmer and I don’t catch a cold 3 days before having to give a public speech (Nailed my thesis tho!).
See you soon on a post that might go out the same day as this one, but chronologically 3 months later 😊
BONUS GAME:
Two truths, one lie (and also recommended songs from my trip)
– Morat – Al Aire
– Morat – Feo
– Yungblud & BMTH – Happier
If you guess which message (song lyric) didn’t applied to my overall mood during the trip you’ll win a cool souvenir from this trip (I’ll ship it as soon as possible to you or make it arrive somehow, but please be patient xD)
urban beets 
Leave a comment