The word la falla comes from a Latin word fax which means a torch. The festival is all about burning the fallas, eating paella and having a good time on the street of the city of Valencia. All night long. For a week. Spanish style.
There are different speculations regarding the origin of the Falles festival. One suggests that the Falles started in the Middle Ages, when artisans disposed of the broken artifacts and pieces of wood they saved during the winter by burning them to celebrate the spring equinox. Valencian carpenters used planks of wood called parots to hang their candles on during the winter, as these were needed to provide light to work by. With the coming of the spring, they were no longer necessary, so they were burned. Over time, and with the intervention of the Church, the date of the burning of these parots was made to coincide with the celebration of the festival of Saint Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters.
For more, please visit Wikipedia as I'd like to show you pictures not talk about the history.
One thing to know is that Las Fallas are AMAZING!! If you're ever in Spain during that time, you have to go! You need to reserve the hotel way before as there's a great amount of tourists, or be an adventure seeker and try Couchsurfing (THAT I RECOMMEND FROM ALL MY HEART).
Here's how the fallas actually look like:
The fallas are made by groups of people that put their own money for the construcion. Of course it's a competicion, the best ones in thousands of categories will get a prize. It's also a tradicion that each group during the last day of the festival makes their own private party celebrating together.
During the festival there's a couple of must-see events:
La Despertà Begins every morning with people and brass bands walkig on the streets playing music and showing off their fallas outfits:
La Mascletà La Mascletà is one of the coolest things if you like lots of people and an incredible noise. In the center of the city, la Plaza de Ayuntamiento you will see an explosive barrage with fireworks and firecrackers and believe me it is better than it sounds! It's just something you have to FEEL. Here's a video but my phone was not able to catch all the noise, although m ears surely did...
X Coming soon...
L'Ofrena de flors
As religious as Spain is (*couch*is supposed to be*couch*) there must have appeared Virgin Mary. There's a big statue of the Virgin Mary in the center and the proccessions finish with las falleras offering her flowers that in the end turns out to look like this:
Els Castells and La Nit del Foc The four last days of Las Fallas at night you will see an amazing firework show. It's good to know people in Valencia, or ask somebody where to go and see them because there are spots better or worse. If you stick close to the river, on the bridge that I already forgot the name of, you will be able to see something like this:
La Cremà This is the culmination! It was one of the coolest things I have done and seen so far! So all of the incredible fallas that took months to create and construct, during the last night of the festival are to be burned... As sad as it might sound it is actually really fun. If you're crazy enough to go to your favourite falla and wait for over two hours only to get to it as close as possible, you will not only see it burning very well but you will also feel the heat! If you the la cremà of one of the big ones you don't even need to stand close, the heat is unbearable! But awesome!
To sum up, Las Fallas is an amazing festival and if I get a chance I will definitely go back! Apart from all of that happening in March, Valencia is an incredible Spanish city, with an awesome beach and great people living there! That's a recommendation for your Erasmus in Spain, people!! One of the best cities to spend your time in!!!
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