It is March, which has another meaning in Valencia, Spain. It is fallas! Las Fallas or Falles is a celebration held in commemoration of Saint Josheph, only in the city of Valencia, Spain. The term Falles refers to both the celebration and the monuments burnt during the celebration.

I heard about this celebration from a friend I have met when I was on vacation in Valencia the summer before. I didn’t really know a lot about it, but now I was in Spain, I asked some people about it. The big fallas is ony for five days, but three weeks before that, there will be fireworks every day at plaza del ayuntemiento (the square of the town hall), which is exactly where I live. There will be some performances as well and more outdoor parties.

The last five days of las Falles can be described as a continuous street party. There are a lot of processions, historical, religious and comedic. Las fallas has been going on for many years now, people from all over the world visit Valencia for this celebration. It is enjoyable for small children, but also elderly people.

In these five days there are a lot of street artist, performances, bull fights, also protest against the bullfights, fire dancers, and more. There are many stalls selling trinkets and snacks such as the typical fried porres, churros and bunyols, as well as roasted chestnuts. What you will see the most are the parades with the fallers where people who are either very wealthy and signed up to be in the parade, or people who signed up for it and work for the municipality. The traditional costumes can cost around the 15.000 euro.

Here is a list of the official events:
Event When What
La desperta (the wake-up call) Each day of las Falles at 08.00 am Brass bands appear from the Casals and march down every street playing lively music, behind them are the fallers throwing firecrackers in the street as they go.
La mascleta (fireworks) Every day, even the three weeks before at 14.00 pm An explosive barrage of coordinated firecrackers and fireworks
La planta At the 15th day The falls infantils are to be finished being constructed and that night, the bigger ones need to be completed.*
L’ofrena de flors (the flower offering) All day during 17 and 18 march The fallers have a flower in their hand. They first go around the whole city, off to the plaza where the old church is and a fountain with seven virgins. They hand the flower to the people who are there and they make an statue of the Virgin Mary, covered with all the flowers.
Els castells and la Nit del Foc (the night of fire) The last four nights On these nights there is a firework show and the old riverbed in Valencia
Cavalcada del Foc (the fireparade) On the final evening of Falles at 07.00 pm This parade is a celebration of fire, the symbol of the spirit of Falles. It is very colourful, noisy and there are a lot of exhibitions, giant mechanisms, people in costumes, rockets, gunpowder, street performances and music.
La crema (the burning) The final night of Falles, around midnight on March 19. The best falla get saved and will go to the museum of fallas. The rest will be burned. At 10.00 pm they start with the infantile ones. The others get burned around midnight. There are 300 fire brigade working on the streets to make sure everything goes as planned and nothing or no one , outside the fallas, gets burned.
The last fallas that gets burned is outside the plaza ajuntemiento (the square of the town hall). At 02.00 am the last firework show will be there.

* Every neighborhood has it’s own ‘fallas team’, they consult with the people living there and decide what kind of fallas they want to make. For example, there is one neighborhood in Valencia, a lot of people who live there, have jobs in the municipality or politics, so they have made a fallas of president Trump because they dislike him and would like to see that this fallas gets burned at the end (only one of the all the hundreds get saved every year).