Fallas: A week filled with churros, fire and pure excitement. Something I am going to try my hardest to explain, but I can’t promise that I will do it justice. Fallas is a festival
in Valencia held every year that leads up to March 19th, which is the day of
Saint Joseph, the carpenter saint
and coincidentally the patron saint of Valencia. Valencia used to be a town filled with carpenters around the 15th century. After the winter
season, many of the carpenters
would throw their
scraps into the streets and burn them to start fresh for the spring. Eventually, they started creating
little structures out of the scraps and later it became
a competition between
the neighborhoods.
One of the best things about my experience of Fallas was being able to see things from a local’s point of view. For example, FSU is a sponsor for our neighborhood Falla house, which
means we are allowed
to partake in many of the activities that this house has and they even set up a wonderful
paella making contest
for us. We were given four huge paella pans and could decide the kind
of paella
that would be made. A Valencian helped
each group with the chopping
of veggies, order of ingredients and how to correctly stir (because there is a correct way). Regardless of the technical
difficulties, the veggie paella
was definitely the fan favorite
(secret ingredient: a hint of love and patience). The entire process
took a few hours but the outcome
was well worth it… making paella
with the people
who invented it! Although Eduardo
Jimenez, if you are reading
this, my parents
still swear your paella is the best they have had.
For the rest of the week after
this my day was more or less as follows:
- Wake up to the sound of old ladies eating and drinking
outside of our window.
- 1:00PM Get dressed
and run out the door to the Plaza de Ayuntamiento for the afternoon
Mascletá daytime
fireworks that make your chest vibrate and your jaw drop.
- Find some churros,
chocolate, porras, or bunuelos.
- Check in on the Plaza de La Reina to see the Virgin and her skirt made entirely
by roses donated by every Fallera
in the city.
- Walk around and try and see every Falla structure that you can.
- 8:00PM light shows
in the Rusafa area every
half hour.
- 12:00AM fireworks in the riverbed.
- Block parties! Music,
food and LOTS of dancing!
The last day, March 19th was the best, however. This is the pinnacle of the entire
event. The streets are filled with Falleras
and Falleros either walking in the crowd or in some form of
parade. There is music everywhere and anxious excitement in the air. The first
burning we saw was the Falla Infantil
de Falla Serrans
(our Falla house).
It was a small structure and still a crowd
bunched up as close as we were allowed and firemen held their hoses tight as they watched
the Fallera Infantil
light the firework
that led to everything bursting
to flames. The second burning was the structure in front of the Central
Market and although
a bigger man squished me into a trashcan, though
I had the last laugh when he couldn’t handle
the heat and I
found myself in the front
row. The final
burning was the town hall Falla where fireworks were set off and the entire city cheered
as the event came to a close.
This festival
may seem strange
and the concept
of burning a year’s work may seem extreme, but I think it is beautiful. All that is bad, physically or emotionally goes into the fire and everything starts new the next day (after a good nap).
Article by Chloe Craig
