The Beginning Of Party Month aka Fallas
Feb. 28th, 2007 04:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amelia_petkovaFebruary 25 (this past Sunday) was the kick-off of Fallas. For those of you who know diddly-squat about Valencia (as I did before coming here), Fallas is a major celebration that takes place every month. To give you an idea: Valencia´s population (only the city itself) is about 1 million people. During Fallas, it is about 2 million.
As for background, my culture teacher claims that Fallas in its earliest form has been around for centuries, originally a celebrating spring/saying farewell to winter celebration. The Church then added religious elements, and now the main day is March 19 to celebrate St. Joseph. The celebrations became more elaborate during the past few centuries, and the fallas figures became larger and more elaborate. Today, each one is about satirizing or simply commenting on a issue in society. All of the fallas used to be burned at midnight on March 19, but in the early 1900s the city began saving one figure each year from being burnt. These figures are not kept in a special museum, which my group is going to later in the month. The main celebrations of Fallas take place during the week leading up to the 19th, but events take place from the very beginning of March. Mostly daily events of firecrackers and occasionally fireworks. Valencians really enjoy including fire in their celebrations.
The beginning of this festival takes place in an area called Los Torres de Serranos, in one of the city´s major historic areas. The towers themselves are the remains of a wall that used to go about the city, and also commemorate when the Catholics took back Valencia from the Moors. This entire area is located along the former River Turia. The river was diverted decades ago, and now the riverbed is an enormous park.
I arrived early and by the time the ceremonies began (after dusk) there were at least several hundred people present. Most of the groups seemed to be from schools, as there were many children, and each group had a girl dressed up in traditional Spanish costume. (You should be able to find an example if you use "Fallas" in the image section of Google.) There were all sorts of noisemakers and drums, and people carried banners about. I believe the mayor of Valencia was the one who made the welcoming speech (in Valenciano, so I understood even less than usual), and one of the girls was chosen to be the "Queen of Fallas." (Something along those lines.) Next there were at least ten minutes of fireworks, which were beautiful. (I could practically see the ozone layer melting because of the smoke, but they really were amazing.)
Occasional updates about this festival will continue to the end of Fallas, as I learn new information and come across interesting events.
EDIT: As was pointed out to me in the comments, I made a typo. Fallas is celebrated every year, not every month.
As for background, my culture teacher claims that Fallas in its earliest form has been around for centuries, originally a celebrating spring/saying farewell to winter celebration. The Church then added religious elements, and now the main day is March 19 to celebrate St. Joseph. The celebrations became more elaborate during the past few centuries, and the fallas figures became larger and more elaborate. Today, each one is about satirizing or simply commenting on a issue in society. All of the fallas used to be burned at midnight on March 19, but in the early 1900s the city began saving one figure each year from being burnt. These figures are not kept in a special museum, which my group is going to later in the month. The main celebrations of Fallas take place during the week leading up to the 19th, but events take place from the very beginning of March. Mostly daily events of firecrackers and occasionally fireworks. Valencians really enjoy including fire in their celebrations.
The beginning of this festival takes place in an area called Los Torres de Serranos, in one of the city´s major historic areas. The towers themselves are the remains of a wall that used to go about the city, and also commemorate when the Catholics took back Valencia from the Moors. This entire area is located along the former River Turia. The river was diverted decades ago, and now the riverbed is an enormous park.
I arrived early and by the time the ceremonies began (after dusk) there were at least several hundred people present. Most of the groups seemed to be from schools, as there were many children, and each group had a girl dressed up in traditional Spanish costume. (You should be able to find an example if you use "Fallas" in the image section of Google.) There were all sorts of noisemakers and drums, and people carried banners about. I believe the mayor of Valencia was the one who made the welcoming speech (in Valenciano, so I understood even less than usual), and one of the girls was chosen to be the "Queen of Fallas." (Something along those lines.) Next there were at least ten minutes of fireworks, which were beautiful. (I could practically see the ozone layer melting because of the smoke, but they really were amazing.)
Occasional updates about this festival will continue to the end of Fallas, as I learn new information and come across interesting events.
EDIT: As was pointed out to me in the comments, I made a typo. Fallas is celebrated every year, not every month.
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Date: 2007-02-27 04:07 pm (UTC)I'm curious aboutt he origins of the festival, especially the burning of the fallas figures. Typically, such a ritual burning is intended as a form of sacrifice - the logic being that by destroying it in this world, it is moved to the next world.
I don't know much about pre-Christian Spain, but it *was* part of the Celtic "empire", and so the similarities to the much-famed wicker man are likely not coincidental.