Fallas de San Jose
Week leading up to March 19th
The origin of the Fallas goes back to the 15th century, when
city carpenters wouldclean out their workshops in the spring and
celebrate their patron saint's day - St Joseph - by lighting bonfires
in the streets, butning up all their refuse, odds and ends, and
their wooden candleholders used during winter evenings while they
worked. Soon, many began decorating these piles of wood, gradually
giving then shape and form.
Today over 350 fallas, or monumental papie-mache constructions,
are burnt in the streets on the night of March 19th during the
traditional Crema (burning). These impressive creations begin
appearing on March 15th - the Planta (setting up) and vie with
one another in ingenuity, beauty and flammability - from pyramid
shapes that burn up perfectly, to stranger shapes satirizing a
politician or social or cultural events that require great care
in being set to the torch.
The Fallas invade the city and transform it into an authentic
spectacle that crescendos to its climax. Whoever wisits Valencia
in the leadup up to March 19th will find the whole city absorbed
in the festive atmosphere. People come out to see the parades
and processions, hear the marching bands, wave to the Falleras
and Falleros in their traditional costumes, and tour the city
on foot to see Fallas on every street corner. Every day at 14.00
hrs the Plaza del Ayuntamiento is packed with people anxious to
experience the thunderous 'mascleta', a gunpowder display whose
decibel levbels make the pavement tremble. There are bullfights,
and flower offerings to Our Lady of the Forsaken, that convert
the Basilica into an authentic tapestry of flowers, and the Plaza
de la Virgen into a garden. At night come the fireworks displays
that reach their highpoint on March 18th, the nit del foc (night
of fire).
