Las Fallas

Imagine a carnival without the rides, streets strung with the lights of Ballywood, the smell of melted chocolate, and the sound of fire crackers exploding in the closed off streets. A woman in an 18^th century hoop skirt and a little boy in knee socks follow the crowd toward the center of the square where stands, towering multiple stories, la Falla.

You try to keep up with Natalia and Patricia, pushing past the crowd. You drop your camera and stop to pick it up. When you look up, you’ve lost sight of the girls, and you’re lost in a mess of people. A grown man shoves past you. You try to move forward, but you’re stuck between bodies. Finally the mob starts to disperse and you make your way to the edge, catching sight of Carlos (you host father). Reunited, you continue with the family towards the falla. When you reach it, Carlos explains the gigantic, surreal sculpture.

“The people of Valencia, Valencianos, spend all year building the fallas, and each one has a theme, like the Spanish cinema or the economic crisis.” The theme of this one was Insanity. You see a gigantic gentleman in a top hat an and coat drinking a green potion on one side of the structure, and on the other you see his deranged transformation, broken bottle in hand.

A girl wearing the same type of dress as you saw earlier – laced bodice, hoop skirt, intricate floral patterns and bright colors – runs up to Patricia, and they shout and laugh in surprise. It’s Maria, one of Patricia’s oldest friends. They met one summer while your host family was vacationing (as they do every summer) in Valencia. She offers to take you inside the falla so that you can take pictures without the crowd of people. As you walk around the falla, you notice signs on nearly every part, but you don’t recognize the words. As it turns out, they’re in valenciano, a distinct dialect of Spanish. You crane your neck to see the top, and a flying pig comes in to view, reigning over the caricatured little world.

As you walk through, Maria explains to you that at the end of the week, all of the fallas will be burned at midnight. This is called la cremà. The next day, preparations for the next year will begin. Her falla is called Na Jordana, and everyone who lives in her neighborhood is part of the same falla. All of the women and girls, falleras, wear the same type of dresses. Each one is unique, made of fabrics from Valencia. Tomorrow they will all parade through the streets, bringing flowers to the Plaza de la Virgen.

You follow Maria to a building where everyone one from Na Jordana is eating dinner. Men in traditional Argentine clothes serve meat to everyone. Hungry, you take a bite of a dark sausage. Patricia gives you a surprised look and tells you what it is. Onions and blood. You decide not to eat anymore. When everyone is finished eating, you follow your host family back onto the street. You are about to head toward the center of the city to watch the nightly fireworks.

At 1 am the fireworks start. They are much louder and with more frequency than you have ever seen before. They were designed by the Caballer brothers of Valencia, some of the most sough after producers of specialty fireworks in the world, and will cost the city over 100,000 Euros. You watch as a silver explosion transforms into floating hearts that descend as slowly as feathers, as if becoming gradually lighter. Twenty minutes and thousands of slivery firecrackers later, you head to the car and back to the family’s flat outside of the city. Tomorrow you won’t wake up until noon.

The next day you and the family head into the city at 1:30. At 2 o'clock you find yourself in yet another crowd, awaiting the Mascletà. You're not sure what you're waiting for, and are about to ask when you hear what sounds like a reenactment of Sarajevo in 1914. A cloud of puffy white smoke rises in front of the crowd, slowly engulfing the buildings. Behind it you can see a few red sparks flying in all directions. The crashes grow louder and become more frequent and the tension mounts. Finally a man shouts, and like dominoes, the entire group applauds, whooping and clapping. The Mascletà ends, and the day begins.

Now, Carlos wants you to see the parade of the Falleras, so you wait on a street corner. First you hear the band, and then, in the distance, you see tiny figures, like dolls, walking forward. As they come closer, you realize they're little girls, all with their hair done in the traditional valencian style, wearing beautiful, colorful, lace adorned dresses. Their mothers follow behind them, and then their fathers and brothers. The will use the flower they carry to cover the statue of the Virgen in the plaza.

After watching the last of the Falleras go by, you and your host family meet up with Miguel and Anna, some friends from Salamanca, also here to enjoy the festival. Miguel bought some petardos, or fire crackers, and you and the girls spend the rest of the night exploring the fallas and throwing petardos. It makes Fonsey nervous, so she walks a distance behind us.

At the end of the night, you are invited to watch la cremà from Maria's balcony. At midnight, you see the falleras crowd around their beloved falla, accompanied by bomberos, firemen. They light the little wonder on fire, and the fallera mayor begins to weep. You watch as the flying pig falls, burning, to the ground, and are reminded that only in a fairy tale could he keep his wings. The fire goes out more quickly than you expected, and you are exhausted. Tomorrow, the city will be cleared of all 150 fallas, and it will be as if it never happened.