Las Fallas, Valencia

Wou! My Spain trip was something what I haven't experienced before or couldn't even have dreamed about. Las Fallas is an incredible party!!

I don't know where to start. No, actually I know! This trip was planned already about a year ago. To be more precise we just planned to visit Valencia someday with Minna and Saila to meet Elena and others again. Luckily we, almost all of us, found days off for the Falles! It was totally worth to woke up at 1am to catch a bus to Copenhagen and take a flight from there to Valencia. 

The sweet scent of orange's flower

Las Fallas is essentially a commemoration for Saint Joseph. The first Falles took place in the Middle Ages when the carpenters burned their planks of wood called parots as a way of celebrating the coming spring and the brighter days after winter. The parots was used to hang the carpenters candles during the winter so they could work. Over time it has evolved and achieved today's form of the ninots or the falles (the monuments). Nowadays they have the two-week-long festival (main days from 15th to 19th March) and you can feel it everywhere in Valencia; streets are full of people, the music, the sidewalk artists, wireforks (every firework have own name), noicemakers, national dresses, monuments and the joy. You won't get the feeling through my text and pics, you should really go to experience it on the spot!

The falla and La Cremà

Every falla have it's own theme which can take a stand to worldwide issues or just be with more humoristical theme. The biggest monuments can be 20meters high and they are made of including cardboard, wooden, cork and paper-maché. The small ones are for children and the big ones are for adults. All the monuments have been placed all over the city and I'm sure I didn't see all 700 of them.. The falla are categorized (if I remember right by amount of money what they have spent to building them) and certain board votes the best falla. 

The winner falla

One of the children's falla

Las Fallas ends to La Cremà where all the monuments are burned at 19th March. The children's falla is burned first and after that the bigger falla one at a time. The monuments burned surprisingly quick and the firefighters were next to taking care that trees don't start to burn or the next buildings don't be damaged. The burning starts with fireworks and next the monument starts burn little by little. You can feel the heat far! The monuments are planned to collapse in a controlled way so everybody should be safe at streets which are so crowd that getting out of there takes minutes. The main falla is burned last that everybody can watch it. There is lots of fireworks surround the burning of the main falla. 

We watched somewhere when a little monument was burned and after that walked to the City Hall to see the burning of the main falla. There was "a calling firework", firework when next to falla was burned and firework when the main falla was burned. So lots of fireworks and people itself threw also noisemakers (in finnish papatti), even the three-year-old kids did that.. (You could hear the noicemakers actually everyday from the morning to the night.) Streets were totally full!

One of the big falla is burning near City Hall
©Elena 

The main falla with a lightshow

The burning of the main falla

La Mascletà

On 19th March at 14 you should be at City Hall to "see" or rather to hear the loudy "fireworks". We were sadly under the wind so all the smoke came towards us so we didn't see so much and it started also to rain a little bit. But well, at La Masclèta you actually don't have to see anything. This firework is just because of the sound and you could feel them also by your feet, it was really impressive!

L'Ofrena de flors

In the streets you could see lots of national dresses. They paraded a specific route at the city to the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of the Forsaken) bringing flowers to her and the monument was built/covered with the brought flowers. At parade every fallas committee played also music from their regional area where they were coming.

National dresses

Building of the statue Virgin Mary

The finished statue of Virgin Mary

Falla Literato Azorin lights

The streets had their own lights and somewhere in the middle of the Las Fallas area was these lights which are in pics below. They had also a lightshow there with music! 

The most spectacular firework is La Nit del Foc (the Night of Fire) is something you should also see at Las Fallas with other people (it took maybe 1h or more to get out of there..), but the firework was impressive!

Foodpics

Bravas and a orange from Valencia
(The best oranges come from here!!!)

Traditional food from
the northern part of Spain.

Paella to..hmm..many people and there was only eight of us... :D
Including hare, chicken, beans and rice.

And churros of course!!

Thanks to Elena, Aloma and Daniel! You were the best guides to have. I would have been so lost without you and wouldn't know how to enjoy Fallas! And I believe that without you came to do your exchange to Kuopio last year I wouldn't have experienced Las Fallas ever. It's impressive how much effort the Spanish do to Las Fallas. I liked Valencia really much and I know we will come to visit you again someday or we will see somewhere else! <3 Thanks also to others, see you next time in Finland!! ;)

More about Las Fallas: Wikipedia, Fallas de Valencia
 I really recommend you to visit Las Fallas if you want to go someday to Spain!! :)

And from Valencia my trip continued to Barcelona!

One tourist pic from Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias
where we drank something kind of potatojuice!