F A L L A S

FALLAS. FALLAS. F A L L A S. 

Finally got an explanation of the Fallas celebration, it is the burning of an old age and the start of a new one. It’s like a phoenix rising from the ashes. It also creates many jobs for the people in Valencia and brings in a lot of money for the city. Every year groups of people create their ideas in these giant statues. Then they celebrate for a consecutive five days and burn them. The best one is burned last, "the best for last", am I right?

The statues have many different themes, I went to the Ninot Exhibit (the Ninots are a small part of the overall Fallas piece) and was blown away by the details and the effort put into them. A lot were political, many were films or tv based, and some I had no idea what was happening. There were rows and rows of them.

On March 1st, they had the opening fireworks to start the beginning of this celebration. Amazing fireworks over the harbour. Everyday since then, there have been fireworks and mascletás. A Mascletá is defined as a pyrotechnic event characterized by the achievement of a noisy and rhythmic composition that features, particularly during daytime, in street festivities; it is typical of the Valencian Community. (Thanks wikipedia) Basically fireworks without lights everyday, yes everyday, at 2pm in the town square and I am not exaggerating when I say it sounds like war. It really is crazy, but I love it. And you can hear these mascletás from a decent way away. I live a good 20 minutes by car and it's like I was there everyday. There is so much excitement from all the children, all the adults, and all the tourists coming into town for it. Valencia became overcrowded, at every corner there was more and more people.

N I N E T E E N D A Y S. Nineteen days of mascletá's everyday at 2pm and on some days it was done multiple times.

The ground was shaking. The sky was dark from the smoke of the explosions. We were told to "keep your mouth open, so you don't blow an ear drum." Good advice. Your heart was pounding after for a good while. But the plaza was entirely full everyday at 2pm. We kept saying, "if you've been to one mascletá, you've been to them all", but after attending multiple they all varied a bit. Depending on how close you were, the weather that day, and the people you were watching with. The last day was definitely my favorite. 

At school today, we created our own mascletá with every primary pupil popping 2 balloons. It actually wasn’t too far off to a real mascletá. I am enjoying all of it. As one of my all-time favorite holidays being the fourth of July, I LOVE FIREWORKS!!!! All of them, I am definitely more of a fan of the ones with lights but I have grown to somewhat appreciate the sound only ones as well. The infantil school made their own fallas for us to burn after our mascletá. I gotta say this week has been one of my favorites - filled with games, the kids all explaining to me what fallas was, and lots of snacks and goodies. 

(I did pop the balloon, don't you worry)

So Hutchins Lake, we have to step up our game to compete with Valencia and their explosions. 

There were impressive light shows all over the city. The best ones I saw were in a hip neighborhood outside of the city center. It was extravagant. There were street vendors selling hotdogs, churros, kebabs, and fries. Beer for a euro. Music and candy everywhere. 

With Fallas, comes much much more than just huge statues, it comes with Churros stands on every corner, with balloons, with way too many firecrackers, and with an excitement all over the city.

My favorites were the thicker churro and the chocolate covered one, definitely. See ya another year, Las Fallas.