Las Fallas

This blog entry is dedicated to the infamous Valencian weeklong celebration called

  Las Fallas

The history of Las Fallas begins with the ancient celebrations of San José, the patrón de los carpinteros, patron of the carpenters.  Each year before the beginning of spring (21 of marzo March), carpenters would always burn their bad and leftover wood from the previous year.  This was a cultural ritual of purification, as fire was always thought of as a purificador, a way to get rid of the bad built up during the year and start anew.

Around the year 1845, the participants in this tradition began to construct the leftover wood into figuras de madera- wooden figures, before burning it.  As the years passed, these wooden figures began to grow in size and decoration before they were burned, each year becoming more beautiful and intricate.

Falla is the monumento- 

the wooden structure, as well as the group of Valencians that participate in its construction.  The club of people are called "falleros"
Each falla is meant to send an important political or national message.

Crews of artists and artisans, sculptors, painters, and many others all spend months producing elaborate constructions, richly absurd paper and wax, wood and styrofoam tableaux towering up to five stories, composed of fanciful figures in outrageous poses arranged in gravity-defying architecture, each produced at the direction of the many individual neighbourhood Casals faller who vie with each to attract the best artists, and then to create the most outrageous monument to their target. There are more than 500 different fallas  (enormous wooden monuments) around the entire city of Valencia during this weeklong celebration.  There's about 1 falla for every three streets.  The people that want to participate in each small area get together and decide to make a falla.

CASAL- the physical club/house where the club of falleros meet and get together.  If the falleros are wealthy, they will buy a clubhouse, or a grancasal- a large club.   Downstairs there will usually be a kitchen where they all gather to cook- the dish of choice is usually Paella, which is a famous Valencian dish.
The wealthy clubs usually vacation together as well, it seems to be a social excuse to reunite and spend time together.
If they're not wealthy, they'll raise money to rent a room or clubhouse each time they meet.


The casal (clubhouse) basically has 2 main purposes: 
1- a place for the falleros (club members) to reunite and discuss their plans for their falla (wooden monument).  
2- a place to throw parties and events -- to fundraise for the construction of their falla

many people from their casal faller dress in the regional and Valencia costumes from different eras of Valencia's history — the dolçaina andtabalet (a kind of Valencian drum) are frequently heard, as most of the different casals fallers have their own traditional bands.

La Semana Fallera
The Fallas week
There are 5 traditional celebrations that occur during the week of Las Fallas, before burning all of the monuments on the last day.
1. Despertá (Valencian for "wake up")
Parades of people walk through the streets of Valencia at 7am playing in marching bands and throwing "petardos"  (pop rocks, small fireworks that explode when you throw them to the ground).  
My professor said that Americans are usually the ones that throw the most petardos 
2. mascletá this is an explosive display of fireworks that takes place every day of the week at 2pm in the political center of the city, the Plaza de Ayuntamiento.  the pyrotechnicians compete for the honor of providing the final Mascleta of the fiestas (on March 19), the final and most important day of Las Fallas.  The mascletá is almost unique to the Valencian community, it is hugely popular with the Valencian people and found in very few other places in the world.
3. La Cabalgata del fuego- parades of people file through the streets in the evening dressed as devils and fire while performing dances and holding enormous sparklers.  It is basically a form of celebrating fire as a purificador, a purifier 
4. ofrenda- each casal (house of falleros) brings an enormous amount of flowers of all types to offer to the Virgin (the saint of Valencia) for 2 days.  All of these flowers are displayed in incredible designs on the streets and are constructed into a giant statue of the Virgin as well.

5. Nit del Foc (Valencian for Night of Fire)

During the week there is an enormous display of fireworks from the riverbed that goes through the center of Valencia.  Each night is progressively grander, and the last night is called Nit del Foc- which my Professor described to us as even larger than our 4th of July and fireworks on the Detroit river combined.  He played a youtube video of the celebration and it seems a never ending bliss of fireworks in the sky.

And last but definitely not least, 6. Cremá ("the burning")- this is the climax of the Semana Fallera, during which all of the enormous fallas are burned. Each falla is adorned with fireworks which are lit first. The construction itself is lit either after or during these fireworks. Falles burn quite quickly, and the heat given off is felt by all around. The heat from the larger ones often drives the crowd back a couple of metres, even though they are already behind barriers that the fire brigade has set several metres away from the construction. In narrower streets, the heat scorches the surrounding buildings, and the firemen douse the façades, window blinds, street signs, etc. with their hoses in order to stop them catching fire or melting, from the beginning of the cremà until it cools down after several minutes. 

My hermana (sister of my host family), Maria, has been a fallera for the past 3 years.  She told me of all of the great experiences she's had through this tradition, and the incredible amount of time they spend on choosing the fabric for their dresses.  It was really interesting to get an inside look at such a big part of Valencian culture.

So there you are, Las Fallas in Valencia