“Fallas” is the name given to the hallmark celebration festival in the Valencian community. Although the grandest expression of the festival occurs in the city of Valencia, celebrations on a smaller scale occur throughout the area, and so of course, Xàtiva has a well developed tradition for this holiday. (indeed, even tiny Anahuir, a town near Xàtiva of barely 80 inhabitants boasts a scaled down version of the celebration!)

I have included not only some photos, but a few short videos in this posting. Watch the videos if you want to get just a little bit more of a feel for the Fallas!

 

The tradition has a variety of components and is timed to coincide with the advent of Spring, and recognition of Saint Joseph.

Planning and work for the event begin right after the end of the previous Fallas. A key element to the work behind the event is the “Casel Fallero”. There are multiple Casel Falleros in each city, and these organizations coordinate efforts, sometimes on a street by street level.

Although some focus on the image of great bonfires that consume elaborate sculptures, that happens rather quickly on the last day of a week long event.

The Fallas involve Valencian pageantry in its fullest manifestation. Women compete for honors dressed in ornate gowns and elaborate hair styles that evoke an earlier, traditional era of Valencian history, with aspects dating to the 16th through the 18th century.

Men wear traditional outfits as well, and together with a small musical band processions of the “Falleros” pass through the town.

Besides the “Falleros”, important components of the Fallas include:

 

Ninots
These are complex artistic sculptures that may involve a wide variety of themes. In years gone by these were wood and paper mache. Today they are more complex and use a wide variety of materials, though it is still absolutely necessary that the sculpture be burnable.

 

 

 

The Mascleta
Every day at 2:00 in the afternoon a wild cacophony of explosive devices is set off, usually lasting about five minutes. The crowd cheers madly. In the city of Valencia, this is done in the square in front of city hall. The event is so popular that the entire central area of town gets packed with people who want to attend, and it is difficult to get very close. (probably a blessing from the perspective of potential hearing loss!)

The “Plantà”
This event involves the erection of Ninots around town. This can be a very involved process, requiring cranes and other equipment. In Valencia, some of the Ninots are gigantic, towering masterpieces, rising to the the height of a 3 or 4 story building. Even in Xàtiva, they can get fairly large. There is often a smaller- “children’s” Ninot near the larger works.

 

The “Despertà”
This is the daily “Wake Up” call to the city, involving an hour long mixture of marching bands and small explosive devices.

Awarding prizes
What is a competition without prizes. Although there is fierce competition among the casal falleros, in the end, everyone is a winner! The video clip below shows a couple of the jubilant teams parading down Xàtiva’s streets in celebration. Fallas is a really fun festival.

The “Ofrenda”
This begins with a precession that includes each falla group- the women and men in their ornate outfits, and accompanied by each group’s band. The women carry flowers. This procession is fairly long, and group after group passes by. I began to wonder if there were even that many people living in the town! In Xàtiva you see whole families involved, including children, and even babies pushed along the procession route in strollers. In Valencia the event culminates in the careful attachment of the flowers on a huge conical wooden structure that represents the Virgin Mary. The concept is the same in Xàtiva, though in our town the flowers are placed on a flat backdrop in the cathedral plaza.

 

 

The “Cremà”
OK, this is what you have been waiting for. On the last night all the year’s hard work on the Ninot sculptures is destroyed in flames. It is not, however, a simple bonfire. The lead Fallera lights a fuse which sets off a grand series of firecrackers, rockets shoot to the sky, and the flames begin to lick at the sculpture, and then suddenly consume it in with great scorching intensity.

The Ninots are burned one after another. At the first, (see video) it was hard to imagine that I was crazy enough to stand as close as I did. When I went to a larger one later, everyone was pushing to get as close as possible to the action. But when the flames leapt up, the crowd quickly fell backwards from the intense heat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few notes about the Ninots-
Although the imagery of many Ninots is merely fanciful, there is a tradition to use these festive sculptures as an editorial platform for messages that range from humorous caricatures of various aspects of life in Spain (including tourists, and even Falleros!), to biting social and political criticism. Between a brutally damaged economy and a seemingly unending string of exposed cases of corruption involving politicians, banks, and businesses, there is a bitter side to current public opinion.
I spent a day in Valencia looking at some of the Ninots there. Some were stately or whimsical- such as a huge rendering of the Trojan Horse, or a collection of fairy tale figures from Aladdin and from the Arabian Nights. But others conveyed mocking images of failed leaders, and a failed system. The images were a protest of sorts, and could be sarcastic, crude, or even lewd.
In Xàtiva, a Ninot depicted city hall as a house of horrors, behind which the diminutive long-time mayor is engaged in an armed duel with a former associate.Nearby the Spanish Prime Minister creeps out of a grave. Looking on is Generalisimo Francisco Franco, the departed former fascist dictator. This alludes to the fact that only last year were the local opposition parties able to forge a deal with the reluctant mayor to remove the honorary “Mayor for Life” title bestowed on Franco.
In Valencia, one particularly strident Ninot, covered a whole spectrum of discontent using a theme of meteorologic terms. A caricature of police attacking young students protesting cutbacks was labeled “Atmospheric Repression”. Next to a representation of “Acid Rain”, was a section labeled “golden rain” which depicted a European Union angel urinating coins down a toilet labeled “Spain” as the kneeling Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy recites a prayer, “Our rescue, who art in heaven…”
No topic is off limits here, and another section used a play on words based on the Spanish word for “royal”, which is “real”, and contrasted impoverished “real” Spaniards with the nicely dressed “unreal” royal family. It is not only Spanish politicians who are ridiculed. The widely despised German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also depicted in a variety of scenes.
I am sure that there are some leaders here who breathe a sigh of relief when the Ninots are ultimately destroyed in flames.

Images of Valencia

Right after the “Plantà”, I was fortunate enough to be invited by my friends Emi and Jordi on an excursion to the capital. I want to share a few scenes from the Fallas in the city of Valencia, including a crowd view (or actually, lack of view!) of a mascleta, a glimpse of the massive crowds, the carnival atmosphere, and a peek at some of the Ninots. There was a band of percussionists on one corner, whose rhythm seemed to mimic the continued thundering explosions of the mascleta, so I have used the sound of their drums as a background for some of the scenes.

It is difficult to convey just how packed with people the city of Valencia becomes during Fallas. When it was time for the “Cremà”, I stuck close to home in Xàtiva, rather than experience the madness in the city!