Fallas explained to my friends in Europe, and around the world (Part 8)

 Early morning 18th March

This is a non-stop festivity, so as in previous days, the firecrackers are doing its job to wake up everyone from bed to announce that there's still time to enjoy the fallas. It's something weird, specially for the falleras and falleros. On one hand you are enjoying so much, that you don't want this to end. On the other hand, you're so tired that you want this to end as soon as possible.

It's in our DNA, we know that this will come to an end, but until that moment arrives, let's enjoy what's left. And what's left for today? The second day of the Ofrena, the other half of the city will complete the flowers drawing in the wooden structure representing the virgin, the music will still be playing around the heart of the city and for those who went yesterday to the ofrena, there are activities in each falla. That could be some contest for the kids, some karaoke or something that the fallas scheduled not to get boured a single second.

It's also a good moment to visit those fallas that are not the biggest ones, but the original, independent or innovative ones. That could be because they are built with recycled material or components that do not harm the environment, or maybe fallas that do not cover the topics in a traditional way, but more in the sense of being something for the public to have an experience or because the falla is more risky...In any case, interesting to see these fallas because -as in any other field- they will open new ways to make the fallas more sustainable or inclusive or both.

The 18th of March is also known because, since ages, this night one can see the biggest fireworks show (I would not dare to say "in the world", but at least in Spain). So famous. It's "the final lap", that triggers the last night with fallas in the street and from this moment, everything one do it's nearly "the last X" of this fallas (X being masceltà, breakfast, almuerzo...whatever)

To be continued

Fallas explained to my friends in Europe, and around the world (Part 7)

 17th March late at night (so 18th March already actually)

The honor of closing the first day of the Ofrena belongs to the "Fallera major infantil", this is the girl (around 10, 11 or 12 years old) representing all the children of Valencia for Fallas. This year it was after 2.30 at night when she entered the Plaça de la Mare de Deu. It was long time since this delay was not that big. There was a time when the fireworks didn't start until the Fallera Major Infanitl finished her ofrena, and that could mean waiting until 2 am, which was something unreasonable.

The shape of the Virgin starts having colour and although is not fully covered with flowers, one can have an idea of how this is going to look like. The ofrena will resume on the 18th March around 15h, but we will get there later.

There is some crazyness in this festivity, the falleras and falleros wait for hours to give a bunch of flowers to the Virgin, and this lasts...30 seconds? One minute? Never more than two minutes for sure. But this is what makes this festivity so unique, that regardless being religious or not (as I already mentioned), the event of the Ofrena is the most popular one. The estimations considered that around 65.000 falleras and falleros went to the Plaça de la Mare de Deu on the 17th, which was a number not reached before (maybe this would explain the huge delay).

There are some rules (some written and some non-written) that need to be respected when it comes to the ofrena:

THE WRITTEN RULES

. The first rule is to be on time, if your falla is not on time, the falla will be punished in next year's ofrena (maybe being the first, as no one wants to "open" the Ofrena because there are no flowers yet and the feeling is still a bit cold.

- The second is to respect the maximum number of people per row, usually 5 maximum.

- The third, and obvious one, is that no drinking is allowed or any disrespectful behaviour.

- The head of the falleras -as a sign of respect- must be covered with the mantilla, a piece of cloth carefully made. This may sound old fashioned, but gives an additional feeling of being closer to that what you believe in (or not). See picture below

THE NON-WRITTEN RULES

- Each music band plays "Valencia" when they enter the square. This is something not mandatory, but that became a tradition. Few bands dare to break this rule.

The night will end in the Basílica (church dedicated to this Virgin), with a pray and then outside the regional anthem will be played by the Band of the city of Valencia. You can listen and watch to that moment in below link:

Himne

It is time now to go to bed...or to go dancing to a verbena, or maybe to visit the fallas that you still didn't see, or...who knows? There are hundreds of places to go and things to do.

Fallas explained to my friends in Europe, and around the world (Part 6)

 17th March starting at 15h

T'he ofrena starts. This is the event where all the flowers Will be given to the Virgin. It's something social, and not because I lived it many times, but because everyone (and let's be fair, specially women) that experiences this moment has great memories and explains that it does not matter if you believe in God or if you are religious. It's something moving, emotional, touching.

Above pictures show how the giant wooden structure that represents the Virgin looks like at the beginning of the ofrena. It will be fully covered with flowers at the end of day 18th March.

There is a full organization behind this event, it had to be splitted in two days because otherwise there were huge delays. Let's say that half of the city goes one day and the other half the other day, on the 18th.

There are two streets used to access the square where the Mare de Déu is, and both seem to be built specially for this moment. You come from a street full of people, very noisy and all of a sudden you are in a pedestrian street, with access only to falleras and falleros (and music bands) with no chance to see what is in the square nearly until the last moment. It's something one can not explain un words.

First day of ofrena closes with Fallera major infantil de València and then fireworks. Closes officially, because every falla will organize its party in the neighborhood.

Will be a long night and there are still two days left.

To be continued...

Fallas explained to my friends in Europe, and around the world (Part 5)

 It becomes difficult already to keep the pace of updating things on the go, but I will keep trying. It's 17th March, 7.16 am when I'm writing these words.

An important update from yesterday is that the best falla in València in 2024 is Falla "L'antiga de Campanar". (The official name of a falla consists of the names of the two or three streets that they "own", this is known as "demarcació", but then each falla has a more informal name and some times is known by this name, as in the case of "L'antiga"). This was announced after a long reading of the list of prizes. There's also some money on it to encourage everyone to perform better.

Fun fact: same falla won "ninot indultat" and the first award.

16th March, 17h

It's the time to pick up the "estandart" (kind of a flag) that recognizes each falla for its achievements. The moment was extremely crazy and busy. It was Saturday, which means that there are more visitors, and it looked like everyone agreed to be there at the same time.

Some pictures and videos to share how that was:

(By the way, 7.27 now and I heard the first firecracker of the day). They are getting ready for la despertà, remember?

One of the most impressive part of las Fallas is that a lot of things happen in the streets. This is the waiting time where music is playing funny and popular songs and falleras y falleros sing and dance not to get bored (as if they had time to get bored...)

The way back "home" It's also funny but people starts being tired (remember, second day in a row with around 19k steps in my case). Despite being exhausted, people will do anything to be in much events as possible. Dinner, fireworks and then verbena or go around the city until late at night.

This is part of the fireworks on the 16th. (There will be another night pyrotechnic show tonight, and the one that people loves more, on the 18th, which is called as "la nit del foc", the night of the fire. For me is like when in an athletics competition the bell sounds meaning that only one lap is left, but in this case referring to a day).

17th March 

Time to go for "esmorzar", not a breakfast, not a lunch and neither a brunch. This is a bocadillo (not a Sandwich) eaten some time between 9.30 and 12.30, if possible on the sun with a cold beer.

In the meantime, the parade to pick up the prizes for the big fallas takes place now, same event that yesterday afternoon with the kids, but now for the adults. There is a constraint in here, that is that at 13h the "Plaça de l'ajuntament" needs to host the mascletà, so this event must finish before the other starts.

This will be prior to "passacarrer", mascletà and the first day of "ofrena". The event where thousands of falleras bring flowers to the Virgin, "la Mare de Déu dels desemparats". 

The heart of the city will move from "Plaça de l'ajuntament" to Plaça de la mare de Déu, where an empty wooden structure waits for millions of flowers.

To be continued...

Fallas explained to my friends in Europe, and around the world (Part 4)

 16th March, 8.am. 

The sound of la "despertà" with firecrackers exploding and music bands playing forces Valencia to wake up.

The agenda in each casal (this is the name that in Valencià, the local language, the place where falleros/as meet is called) is at its 100%:

Kids will eat chocolate, adults will have some beer (or water, as it's quite hot today), women that will dress soon with traditional costume are having their hair prepared (such a ritual!) to be ready...You can have an idea of how their hairs will look like with below picture:

And the "Passacarrer" will also happen! How could I forget about this? It's an event where the falleras (and falleros walk around the neighborhood to say "hello neighbors, March is here and we are here to celebrate it! Come and join us in this celebration".

While many people are enjoying the fallas, others work to have things ready. In this case the pyrotechnician prepares for the event where all the kids will set fire to firecrackers all at the same time. This was how initially the mascletà was done, and after it evolved to what it is today.

Time for lunch now, around 15h. Don't try to understand why so late, just embrace it ;-)

One can hear mascletàes from different fallas. I still, and always will, believe that this is a unique place and time in the world. This can't be explained neither with words, pictures nor videos. I can try to share a flavour or telling you how this is, but a person will never experience it the same way as if he/she is here, in Valencia, where and when it happens.

I still follow up my daily steps and at this point I did around 7500, but the day is not over yet.

Next chapter will happen this afternoon, when "la comissió infantil" (this is all the kids in a falla) go walking to the heart of the city to pick up the prizes they won (linked to the figures in the falla, to the sports competition that happened during the year, theater plays contest...). Let's say that in the official events the falleras and falleros dress very smart with traditional (and beautiful, and un many occassions expensive) costume. Silk, gold and silver will be part of this.

To be continued...

Fallas explained to my friends in Europe, and around the world (Part 3)

 It's around 1 am in the night from the 15th to the 16th. We are waiting for a pirotecnic show prepared in the falla of the neighborhood. We enjoy the streets these days more than ever. These pictures are part of it (keep scrolling for the videos):

And videos. I can only say that there was a man next to me saying that he felt like his heart was going to go out of his chest.

In the rest of the city, lot of people is finishing the "falla gran" (big falla), some others are dancing in the street and some musicians are sleeping to charge batteries for tomorrow, well...today. One losses the concept of time during fallas.

To be continued 

Fallas explained to my friends in Europe, and around the world (Part 2)

 It's 18h and this is what my Smartwatch shows:

This is important to know, during Fallas you walk, walk and walk, so better having comfortable shoes.

It was announced yesterday the "Ninot indultat infantil", this is the scene that will not be burned and will, once fallas are over, be part of this collection that were saved from being burnt thanks to the votes of the visitors of the exhibition. Isn't this democracy?

This year, the Ninot indultat infantil belongs to the falla "Duc de Gaeta - Pobla de Farnals", and looks like this:

It does not necessarily mean that this falla will be the winner of the contest, but this is already some privilege that no one will reject.

Each falla is going to pick its ninot (same as the kids did yesterday) to the "Ciutat de les arts i les ciències", the modern science museum that is hosting the temporary exhibition since mid February, and this is when things get serious, a crowd with groups of falleros and falleras (men and women) dressed with clothes of the same color walk with joy towards the museum and then back to their falla (meeting point) with music around.

This year the scene that will escape from the fire consists of two old "grandma" and "grandpa" where, because of the disease of alzheimer all needs to be marked with Post-its. This belongs to"L'antiga de Campanar", and it looks like this:

20.30h this is the amount of steps I did so far in the day. Remember that I worked and rest of the day was quite "light"

It's late already, around 00.00h and this just started, "L'albà de les falles" announces with fireworks that we are ready to enjoy the best time of the year. No words to what you can see in below link 

L'albà de les falles 2024

Fallas explained to my friends in Europe, and around the world (Part 1)

First of all, apologies if there are spelling mistakes as I'm writing this entry nearly on the go.

I will skip the history of fallas and will go to the present (maybe I will elaborate later with more time availability).

Day 14 if March

This is the eve of the "kid's day". Kids in the falla gather in the afternoon of the 14th of March to pick up the "ninot" (small part of the falla) that was in the exhibition together with 380 more ninots, and will place in each falla to complete the ephemeral monument.

And the artists finish every detail of the Falla infantil (falla for children)

The children have dinner together that afternoon to prepare for the 15th, that's usually the day dedicated to kids.

When kid's dinner It's over,  It's a good moment at night to visit the fallas now, it's t'he night when everything it's not finished but you can have an idea of how the biggest fallas will look like. You will not find that crowded streets yet.

Day 15 of March

T'he city is waking up, the temperature is perfect:

Fallas infantiles need to be completed at 9 as the jury will be evaluating them today.

It's not even 8.30 and look what I walked already!

This is how they look like when finished:

Update 15th March: this is the best Falla infantil of Valencia in 2024. I was very lucky to visit it before it was known, as this will become mission impossible now. When I was there, I was nearly alone!

There's a mix if feelings in the air. There's people going to work (me), there's people still working (artistas falleros) or the jury visiting the finished world, and there's people enjoying the fiesta in the streets. They eat bunyols, churros and hot chocolate to move to Fallas mode "on".

In the meantime, the "big fallas" complete their shape and the more stressful hours until the 16th of March at 9am will be running for every artist.

And the art is already in the streets:

To be continued...