According to my old Rough Guide to Spain (this book served me well but I left it to my flatmates three years ago), Las Fallas are one of the Spanish “Big Four”, together with Semana Santa, Feria de Abril and San Fermín. Strangely enough, the Carnival is not among them.
Now it so happened that I, quite intentionally, stopped in Valencia en route to Boston and back, being able to see some of the festival and even take some pictures of it. For the benefit of those who never heard of Las Fallas, I allow myself to explain what’s going on here.
During the year, each barrio or neighbourhood builds a satirical caricature or falla, some as tall as buildings. These begin to appear in the plazas at the beginning of March and are judged and awarded prizes before being set alight at midnight on March 19 <...> — traditionally, carpenters celebrated the beginning of spring by decorating torches they used over winter and adding them to a ritual bonfire. The fallas are ignited in succession, the last to go up being the prizewinners.
La Falla Sueca-Literato Azorín, the third place winner in the competition of street illumination
The word falla is derived from Latin facula and is cognate to, among others, Italian fiaccola and Russian факел. First, falla refers to a construction, aka monumento fallero, which is to be burned around the day of San José, the patron saint of carpenters. (This Christian connection is nothing but a later clumsy addition to a thoroughly pagan festival.) The word also grew to represent the fiestas involving the monuments and any of the neighbourhood associations dedicated to their construction. These associations are also called comisiones falleras, while the place where such an association meets is known as casal faller. According to Wikipedia, “There are about 750 of these neighbourhood associations in Valencia, with over 200,000 members, or a quarter of the city’s population” — little wonder that all Valencian girls want to be falleras and all Valencian children (boys and girls alike) want to explode petardos.
The weather this year was unusually wet, which had its pluses and minuses. The fiesta proper goes from 15 to 19 of March, but usually one can see some of the fallas before that. At least that was my plan. I arrived to Valencia in the evening of Saturday 10 March. The only festive bit I managed to see was La Falla Sueca-Literato Azorín, the third place winner in the competition of street illumination. It was raining though. I saw quite a few fallas under construction, mostly wrapped in polyethylene film. Normally, the artists would work overnight to finish them, but this night, clearly, it was not the case. However, there was no shortage of chocolate y buñuelos stalls.
On Sunday, the weather appeared to be better. I went to the city centre to do some shopping and see, or, rather, hear the mascletà on la Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Valencia.
Spanish fans and Venetian masks in Face (Carrer del Trench, 3)
According to Spanish Wikipedia, for Valencians mascletà is one of the most important acts, which cannot be said of the visitors who simply don’t understand what it’s all about. I am also a bit puzzled why they do a firework display in a broad daylight. There were the first and the second warning and then, at 2 pm sharp, Fallera Major said from the Ayuntamiento’s balcony those famous words, “Senyor pirotècnic, pot començar la mascletà!” — well, I don’t know. I didn’t see much apart from the smoke. Apparently, unless your entrails are thoroughly shaken, the mascletà isn’t any good and most likely the failed senyor pirotècnic won’t be invited next time. On the contrary, when the windows burst in a cresciendo and you feel like you were beaten up thoroughly and rhythmically, then yes, the show is de categoría. Moreover, there are people who attend mascletà every single day from 1st to 19th of March.
Plaza de Ayuntamiento, 11 March, about 2 pm
I arrived back to Valencia in the afternoon of Monday 19 March. My plan to see the finished monuments by daylight failed miserably as it was pouring till 7 pm. On a plus side, there was far less people on the street than I expected, and so, when it stopped raining, I was able to inspect some wet but still spectacular fallas, including the winners of Sección Especial. Normally, you can come close to the big fallas if you pay, anything between one and four euros, but this is for guiris. True Valencians, I was told, never pay to see them.
I also caught a glimpse of the Cavalcada del Foc on Calle Colón. An Ohmu-like armoured car was crawling in the head of the procession, spouting sheaves of sparks. It was followed by a group of jumping red devils.
...and the Leader of the Free World as an orangutan
Wood and Fire
La Princesa de Caraboo
The smaller fallas are getting ready to be burned...
Unfortunately, this falla was not completed... but it will burn down all the same
Around 10 pm, the cremà began: they started to set the fallas infantiles on fire. At 1 am, I was, once again, at la Plaza del Ayuntamiento. But it took another twenty minutes or so for the firework display to start. It lasted for about ten minutes; after that, the municipal falla went up in flames.
All things must pass
Rain and cold notwithstanding, Las Fallas put to shame efforts like Bonfire Night. I like the idea of getting rid of last year’s junk, with a bang. (If only it was as easy to get rid of corrupt politicians as of their caricatures!) I wish I saw more of the fiesta, and hope to return in years to come.
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