Las Fallas in Valencia is an annual festival dating back to 1497, when carpenters and artisans would annually dispose of all the broken artifacts and spare pieces of wood left-over, they would drag them outside and burn them. Over time the parots were dressed like people before they were burned - often important people from the neighborhood. This then became a competition between neighborhoods for the most impressive parots. They also grew satirical in nature - under Franco the government in fact attempted to ban the Fallas many times as it was one of the only ways left for public expression and criticism of politics.
The build-up to the Fallas is actually really cool, as streets close off and the huge monuments (as they are now known) are carefully covered so as not to be revealed until the Fallas begins. The Fallas kicked off with a 'Mascleta' a huge number of fireworks banging into the sky, from then on every day the Mascelta occurred at 2pm. I went with my friend Nuria to see one of the first ones (pictured below), it was sweltering hot and extremely loud. A cool experience but certainly not one I would want to repeat every day for weeks as the Spanish seemed to - creating huge crowds every day.
The Fallas also involved a Festival of Lights and all the neighborhoods strung different types of lights above the streets. Here are the ones in the street of the Academy where I worked. On the right you can see the throngs of people going to look at the monuments which were finally unveiled - for three days only before they were burned on the last night.
Outdoor night markets also sprung up around the monuments, here is a stall selling only olives. Awesome.
The monuments were not at all what I expected, far larger and more colorful than I thought they would be, and also cartoonish, like something from a Disney movie. Apparently in the 20th C they had switched from wood to cardboard and polystyrene.
They all had political messages, however as the little plaques at the foot of each monument were in Valencian, we had no hope of understanding.
I liked this one because it reminded me of a mix between the pied piper and the nursery rhyme about three blind mice - the mice here were tiny, adorable and looked very brainwashed.
Even with no understanding of language or politics of Spain, I enjoyed these monuments, the one on the left definitely looked like it was having a go at the church! The one of the right reminded me of a very evil Ogre/Shrek.
Although it's not a very good picture, this one was one of my favorites, and reminded me of Alice and Wonderland.
Some more cool monuments, the one on the right had lots of Romans and was one of my favorites. One of the monuments even had Asterix and Obelix! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them.
More weird and wonderful monuments
On the left you can see the amazing structures made entirely by lights, on the right the statue of the Virgin Mary, being cloaked in fresh flowers.
The Lion monument was one of the fanciest - at night it lit up from inside and changed colors. And then on the last night, each monument was burned, accompanied by a live orchestra sat just behind the crowds.
This enormous monument won first prize and therefore had the
honor of being the only monument not burnt.
And then every night at midnight, the fireworks would go off for fifteen minutes non-stop. Each night it was a different and dramatic display.
I can quite easily say they were the best fireworks I have ever seen.
View down one of the busy streets on the night of the burning.
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