There are many cultural events and
festivals in Spain, and I've been to some of them such as Las Fiestas y Festivales, which happen at the beginning of September, Carnaval, which happens in February and la Feria de Abril (Seville Fair) which is held in Seville two weeks after Semana Santa. Although I enjoyed all these events thoroughly, I have to say the best
festival or cultural event that I've been to in Spain has to be las Fallas (Spanish) or Falles (Valencian), even though La Feria de Abril is a close second for me. The Fallas is an event that lasts five days and nights and happens
at the beginning of spring every year in Valencia to commemorate Saint Joseph.
Other cities in the Comunidad de Valencia, such as Alicante, also have their own
version of the Fallas, but Valencia is the main city where it is celebrated.
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| One of the parade at the Fiestas and Festivales in Guadalajara |
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| The Seville Fair in the day |
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| The main entrance to the Seville Fair at night |
The word falles or fallas refers to both the celebration and the paper mache figures created during the event. During the Fallas each neighbourhood of the city has an organized group of people,
called the casal faller or comissió fallera, that works all year long raising money to make
the fallas. After they obtain the money, each group produces
a construction known as a falla which that will be eventually burnt.
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| The main falla in Plaza de Ayuntamiento in Valencia |
There are various events that happen during the Fallas. For example, there is La
Despertà which is essentially a wake up call at 8 am to start the day. There's also the La Mascletà which is where firecrackers, and sometimes fireworks, are set off for an hour in every neighbourhood starting at 2pm every day of the
falles. La Mascletà certainly scared me because even though the firecrackers are harmless, some of them are set off right in front of you without you realising until the last moment. Thirdly,
there's La Plantà, which is the deadline set for the fallas
to be finished - it falls on 15th March. The infantils (the small falles) are to be finished in the day whereas the falles majors are to be completed by night time for La Plantà. The fallas that aren't finished will be
disqualified. Next is the L'Ofrena de flors which is where is falla group takes
an offering of flowers to the virgin Mary. Then the Els Castells and La Nit
del Foc happen the day after. The Els Castells are firework displays in the old riverbed in Valencia that happen on the nights of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th. Each night is progressively grander and the
last is called La Nit del Foc (the Night of Fire). On the final evening of the Fallas at 7pm the Cabalgata
del Fuego happens. This is
basically a fire parade. Finally there
is La Cremà, which is when all the fallas, including the winning one, are burnt. La Cremà is started by the infantils being burnt first, and then the bigger ones are being burnt couple of hours after at around midnight
or sometimes later.
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| The Virgin Mary |
Now, because I work for the majority of the
week I could only make it to the last day of the Fallas, but in the end I think
it was enough to give me a good taste of the event. Even though the weather was
absolutely terrible (the worst I've seen in Spain so far - except the snow in
the North) I had an amazing time.
As soon as I and the other passengers
on board the train to Valencia got off the train, we were greeted by the sounds of many
fire crackers being set off: the Cabalgata. I know that it started at 2pm, but
expected it to be finished by the time I arrived, which at about quarter past
two, but the banging continued as I made my way to my hostel, and I even stumbled across families and
children setting them off right in front of me. Apparently the Calbagata had been going for several weeks according to another traveller I met at the event.
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| The winning falla |
As soon as I had settled in my hostel, I
went exploring and wanted to see all the fallas. I first stumbled across the
winning one, which is actually quite beautiful even though there was
certainly a lot of competition from other fallas. Unfortunately, because the weather was terrible
(it was too windy) the Cabalgata del Fuego was cancelled due to the health and safety risks involved if they
continued. I was very disappointed, because the fire parade sounded and looked
really cool and I wanted to take pictures. However, I still got to see some
other cool stuff. For instance, I
randomly and thankfully stumbled across an event which was essentially the
process of switching all the street lights on to prepare for La Cremà, and it
was amazing. It instantly reminded me of Christmas and got me excited for the
burning of the fallas, that would start soon.
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| The street lights being turned on |
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| Fireworks being set off before the falla is burnt |
In the end, I only got to see one falla burn, the one
in Plaza de Ayuntamiento, and it was fascinating to see. Although we waited ages to see it
burn (we arrived early to actually get a good spot to see the burning) the
experience was fantastic, a part from it being too crowded. There were
fireworks, cheering, a mini countdown to tell you how long was left for the falla to burn, and it was just great to see all these people cheering and waiting for the falla to burn. As soon as the paper mache lion was lit up I could feel the heat, but the most interesting part of the burning was seeing the actual falla being demolished by the fire.
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| The beginning of the burning |
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| More professional image I didn't take |
So, although I only got to see the last day
of las Fallas and even though some events were cancelled, I had a great time
and hope to return again to Valencia to see the event in its entirety next year. I hope the weather will be better though!
