Las Fallas in Valencia

This weekend I went to Valencia with two of the girls I work with and another auxiliar friend of mine. Las Fallas is a celebration of St. Joseph, the patron saint of the carpenters that is coincidentally celebrated during the spring equinox. Each neighborhood or group throughout Valencia spends all year fundraising and making their "Falla"--an elaborate firecracker-filled cardboard and papier-mâché monument that is several stories high. Each Falla has a theme, and they are often satryical. This year, we saw one making fun of Spain's political leaders, playing a game of "ping-pong" passing the blame and the responsibility between another; another making fun of preppy people with a traffic sign showing the Lacoste alligator and a tagline "Preps on the loose"; and another falla made fun of the relationship and the famous kiss after the World Cup Championship between Spain's (Real Madrid) goalkeeper Iker Casillas and reporter Sara Carbonero. My favorite falla was the "Made in Spain" one, which celebrated all things Spain--with lots of humor, too! It made fun of a daytime TV star who, at 35, appears to be 60, has tons of wrinkles and wears pounds of make-up; it featured a scene from Catalunya (where bullfighting is now illegal) of a bullfighter waving a white flag at the bull instead of the traditional red flag...very funny.

We got in Thursday night in time to check out the fireworks show that happens every night at 1 a.m., then checked out some of the fallas all lit up at night. Friday we saw the La Mascletà en la Plaza del Ayuntamiento, a fireworks show (mostly for the noise) at 2 p.m.; walked around, looking at more fallas; had a wonderful paella lunch; saw the offering of the flowers in the Plaza de la Virgen, the end-point of the processions, where they fill a giant statue of the Virgen with carnations carried by each group of falleros. Saturday morning, we went to the beach, which was right across the street from our hotel for a while, then we headed into the city to see more of the fallas (there are over 100 throughout the city!). We had to try the traditional fried food of the festival: buñuelos and chocolate! It was good, but basically just deep-fried balls of dough, which we then proceeded to dip in the thickest hot chocolate you've ever seen. Yum. After the buñuelos, we caught a little bit of the "Cabalgata de fuego", a parade with lots of sparklers and characters with various fireworks. The night finished up with La Cremà--the burning. They first set off a series of fireworks, then the entire falla goes up in flames! It's kind of sad, and extremely destructive!!!

Overall, Las Fallas was an interesting experience. It was definitely good to see it once, but I don't know that it's something I could get excited about seeing every year. It's very destructive with all the burning and fireworks, kind of dangerous--the children are encouraged to throw "petardos", and there are TONS of people. The fallas themselves are really neat to see, but all seem to have the same artistic style. It was something to experience, but I don't necessarily feel the need to see it again next year...