What is The Las Fallas Festival

This festival is one of the craziest and most incredible festivals that you will experience in Spain. If you think that you have been to a festival in other parts of Spain that was wild, then prepare yourself for even more craziness when you do get to experience this festival. This festival is held during March each year and specifically from the 15th to 19th.

This festival is in honor of St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. This festival started during the middle ages when carpenters hang up "parots" or planks of wood to hold up their candles while they were working. The "parots" will be burned away when spring comes to celebrate the end of cold winter days of working. Later on the parots were decorated with clothing to make them more similar to a local personality. These were the beginnings of the modern day "ninots" which are huge figures made of cardboard, Styrofoam, and other materials. The burning of the parots were linked with the celebration of St. Joseph's Day so that the people will not overdo the festivities.

These days, all the neighbourhoods organize committees to take care of the budget for the creation of the ninots. The casal faller is the head of this budget committee and will see it that the ninots will be made well. The ciudad fallera is an area in the city where the groups spend months creating the towering ninots for their future fiery tableaux. The finished ninots are placed in key areas around the city and they now designed to look like lampoons of famous Spanish celebrities, politicians, and other international celebrities.

When you have decided to go to this festival, prepare to be awakened rudely by a wakeup call at 8 am which is called "La Desperta". You will be woken up to the sounds of brass bands marching and accompanied by the noise of loud firecrackers. This in turn will activate car alarms and shop alarms to make sure that you are fully awake to start the day's activities and this beats coffee anytime. You will hear these loud explosions the whole day and then there will also be processions. La Mascleta begins at 2 in the afternoon which is an organized explosion of pyrotechnics all over the city and it is especially much louder if you are at the Plaza Ayuntamiento. If you think that this already too noisy for you, prepare your heart and ears because the noise will just get worse as the day goes on.

Each night will have a fireworks display and will build up gradually until it reaches the "Night of Fire" or "La Nit de Foc". This is the most famous event that placed Valencia on the map and it is the night when the enormous ninots stuffed with fireworks are burned to the ground. Be fully prepared to protect yourself from injuries caused by fireworks as this is also a very dangerous festival. People will just light up fireworks anywhere. Do not forget to also try Spain's best contribution to the cuilinary world, acorn cured hams such as the jamon iberico and dry cured hams like jamon serrano. You have never been to Spain if you have not tried any of these hams.

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