| The most popular festival, and the one for which the city is known, are Las Fallas.
The Ciuda del Turia wakes in mid-March with the ‘despertá’, hundreds of strings of fireworks that strike one’s ears to start a new day of festivities, impassive to the noise, bustling and movement, the ‘fallas’ stand listening to the distant sound of the Turia and breathing the Mediterranean salt. They know that some of them will be relieved of burning. The world capital of paella, for a few days Valencia becomes the city of fire.
They say that the origins of Las Fallas lie with the craftsmen, and particularly with the carpenters of Valencia. In winter, to take advantage of the last days of light, oil lamps were used from which an artefact called “parot” was hung, something very similar to a wooden candelabra with several arms. With the arrival of the good weather, on the eve of San José they were burned in the doors of the houses.
With time, old clothes and other objects for burning were added to the ‘parot’, and they took the form of scarecrows. Then the “ninot” appeared and this tradition gave way to the modern ‘fallas’.
On the evening of 19th March, with the ‘cremá’, Valencia becomes a true ball of fire. Authentic works of art in papier maché go up in flames from one end of the city to the other. |
