Sun, 22 November 2009
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Blogger Ivan Larcombe is about to witness Valencia’s loudest festival consisting of fireworks, sculpture, music, flames and reckless destruction.I remember a time when I had impressed my Spanish girlfriend by suggesting we head to Valencia for Las Fallas. This was in 1997 before I had set foot in Spain and knew less than 100 Spanish words. As a Canadian who had never been to Spain, my knowledge of Spanish festivals seemed quite exhaustive. (I riffled through my Spanish travel guide while on the phone with her.) We never did make it to Valencia though.
This year will be the first time I experience the madness that locals are constantly warning me about - “follón de ruido” (crazy noise). I’ll be in good company with my wife and son, plus my parents-in-law who have just arrived for a three-week visit.
Not to be missed: Falla in the street
What is Las Fallas?
This is Valencia’s biggest and loudest festival. (It may just be the loudest celebration in the world.) It officially begins on the last Sunday of February and ends on 19 March but the real festivities are from 15 to 19 March. Firecrackers, fireworks, sculpture, music, flames and reckless destruction - that seems to be what this big party is about.
Origins of La Fallas
Back in the middle ages of gloomy winter days in Valencia, carpenters used wooden boards called ‘parots’ to support candles that they burned to provide a little more light to work by.
When spring arrived, they ruthlessly burned these parots as a way to celebrate the end of winter. (I love the irreverence of the carpenters burning the very material of their trade.) It wasn’t long before more people were getting in on the act.
Burning things can be fun, but why not make it even more fun by decorating the wooden boards and burning local or national figures in effigy?
This ritualistic burning is what fanned the flames of Las Fallas. (The word falla comes from the latin fax, meaning torch.) The church took notice of the celebration and gave its blessing by decreeing that 19 March should be the official day of burning; this is Saint Joseph’s Day, the patron saint of carpenters, among other things.
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