Travels4Yourself

From March 15 to 19, the “population” of Valencia increased significantly, and all for one reason: the city has a fiesta - Las Fallas - a celebration of huge sculptures, fireworks and fire. Valencia's carpenters once burned the remains of wooden furniture on the eve of the feast of their patron saint Joseph (March 19). Now, on the last night of the holiday, hefty sculptural compositions burn throughout the city, usually making fun of someone (wicked politicians, social vices, high-profile scandals). Local over the years from Las Fallas get tired and prefer to go somewhere in the village to wait out the invasion. But first things first.

When and where is the holiday

Passes Las Fallas in Valencia. The festival begins in mid-March and lasts exactly a week. But in fact, preparations for the holiday begin long before - almost a year. Each region prepares its huge papier-mâché figures, and the pyrotechnicians train with fireworks: both with daytime “masklet” and nighttime - traditional.

How Las Fallas came about and why is it so called

The name itself comes from lat. “Fax” is a torch. The story goes back to the Middle Ages, when carpenters burned shavings in front of their workshops on St. Joseph’s Day (March 19), because Joseph is the patron saint of carpenters. Many years later, it all transformed into Fallas, when the whole city is divided into rival areas, and each of these areas rents huge warehouses, hires craftsmen and makes stunning pieces of papier-mâché and plastic. The idea is carnival, to laugh at those whom you can’t laugh at in ordinary life: at vices, shortcomings or people, including politicians. Therefore, the object of ridicule may be greedy, or may become the prime minister, who did not sign any law that the Spaniards liked.

Features and traditions of the celebration of Las Fallas

The guests of the holiday have only a few days to admire this beauty, while it is still intact: they put the figures on March 15. The burning of giant sculptures is the most spectacular, but not the only part of the holiday. At Las Fallas, the program is scheduled by minute. Valencia rumbles with firecrackers and 15-minute fireworks, including the Musket's noisy day fireworks; smart girls "falley" in traditional magnificent dresses carry flowers to a figure of the patroness of the Virgin Mary, orchestras play throughout the city. With the onset of darkness, Valencians and visitors do not even think about diverging: what a dream, when you can burn bonfires and cook paella right on the sidewalks, and after a night fireworks, rush to numerous street discos and concerts.

Everyone is happy about this event and after that they do not go to bed for three days. There is still a lot of everything inside! Parades of women with children in national costumes and dresses are walking, paella night competitions are being held, everyone throwing explosive packets at each other’s feet, and on the third day, exhausted from lack of sleep and with exhausted nervous system, you already start to wait for it to be will end. And for three days the city walks and examines these figures, of which there are actually hundreds, and they are of incredible beauty. And on the third night, Valencia burns like a bonfire to the horror of firefighters, who in the narrow streets poured from the hoses the walls of medieval houses so that they would not catch fire from these endless bonfires.

8 interesting facts about the Fallas festival

1. Valencian pyrotechnics are considered the best in the world and, as a rule, it is they who make fireworks at all the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

2. One of the theories of the origin of the Las Fallas holiday comes from pagan times, when pagans made fires dedicated to their saints. After Christianity was adopted, they tried to eradicate this custom, however, it was not possible to completely remove it, since the Spanish faith was very strong.

3. Sweet chocolate with "Churros" or "Buñuelos" (sweet fried donuts) - local specialties during the festival, they began to bake in the Moorish period - from 711 to 1614.

4. Traditional flower laying is the most emotional event at the festival. Each area of ​​Falliero, which is represented by "Falléras" (ladies dressed in the traditional lush decoration of the Fallier), lays a bouquet of flowers for Our Lady of the Les Miserables. And dozens of artists use these flowers to create an impressive tapestry for the Virgin, which can reach more than ten meters in height.


5. The height of the giant papier-mâché dolls, also called ninot, ranges from 2 to 20 meters. Their production takes several months. Ninot dolls have long become one of the symbols of not only the festival, but of the whole of Spain.

6. There is another version of the origin of the Las Fallas holiday. In the old days, during a spring holiday, the carpenters guild burned up wooden waste accumulated during the winter, as well as various old things, first of all, stands for fixtures, which became unnecessary due to the increase in daylight hours.

7. Las Fallas is the largest street festival in Europe.

8. Musklet - this is a daily salute, characteristic only for Las Fallas. This madness begins with the fact that several hundred thousand people gather in front of the town hall, where pyrotechnic charges are laid. But here it is not fireworks. This is a salute that cannot be seen. This disgrace is called “Musklet”, and its idea is to enjoy the melody of the explosion. The explosion lasts about seven minutes. It is of such deafening power that it is impossible to talk while standing nearby, because nothing is heard, and the eardrums simply burst from decibels. But when the first fright passes, you understand that there really is some kind of rhythm in this series of explosions, some kind of music, if I may say so. Well, in any case, harmony.