A Spanish settled in Manchester. Just turned "green"!!!
A Spanish settled in Manchester. Just turned "green"!!!
Member since:03.05.2007
Reviews:6
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Update: Just added pictures in XXL scale. Just have a look if you feel the review is too long to read it all! Thank you.
VALENCIA AND "FALLAS" : MUST SEEN
I lived in Valencia (Spain) for about 5 years, and I have to say that being Spanish, but from the North, this region has nothing to do with my own region. There are people that think that Spain has almost the same culture everywhere, but this is not completely true, and some regions have a specific culture and events that you will not find anywhere else in Spain. This is the case of Valencia, especially when we talk about their main festivity: the "Fallas" .
WHAT ARE THE FALLAS?
Basically, although there would be lots to say, the Fallas is an old tradition that has changed through time. There is a week when they put in the streets hundreds of sculptures beautifully made with paper, wood and other materials commonly used to create sets for films (to give you an idea). Some of them are huge, even more than 25m high (more than 82ft), although these ones are about 10, considered "special", and the ones that compete for a really high prize. After almost one week, all these sculptures are put in fire, and burned to ashes, which marks the end of the festivity. Well, these are the basics, what all tourist (as I was) see from the Fallas, but there is much more, which I will explain in more detail below.
WHEN ARE THE FALLAS?
The Fallas festivity starts always the 14th of March, and ends the 19th, which is Father's day in Spain. If you are planning to go to Valencia, and you do not want to go in summer, choose these dates, because you will be amazed.
WHERE ARE THE FALLAS?
The most important Fallas are in Valencia City, although there are other towns and cities in the region that also celebrate this festivity. You will not find the Fallas anywhere else in Spain. I am from the Northwest, and I knew just the basics of this festivity, but when I lived in Valencia and I saw all the work that is behind, I really understood what is so special about them.
FALLAS IN DETAIL:
Versions about the origin of the Fallas:
Some people say that the Fallas come from a time when the carpenters decided to throw away all the materials they had left from the winter, which they put in the street. The neighbourhood then added old furniture and things they wanted to get rid off, and they put all these on fire when spring arrived.
Some other people say that it's even an older tradition, before the Christianity arrived. It was a Pagan festivity to ask for a good yield in spring to the gods, so they put together old and bad things which they put in fire, as a symbolic act to get rid of the bad weather. When the Christianity arrived, and because Pagan traditions were so hard to get rid of, they just put a new "Christian" festivity on top, in this case: Father's day.
Other people say that it's a mixture between these two theories. There are probably more theories, but these ones are the ones I heard about living there.
The idea of the Fallas, nowadays, is to create sculptures with a topic, so they are about things that happened in the previous year, which the people know about, to put this on fire. They have a comic and even satiric side, so most of the time you will see politicians, celebrities and famous people represented in the sculptures. All of them have a small note in the ground, which explains with a verse the meaning of that figure (called ninot ). There are other Fallas that are created with the idea of making people think about that topic, so they could create one about multiculturalism, music history or even global warming. The fallas cost thousands of pounds sometimes, and if we put them all together I guess we would be talking about millions of pounds. So who pay for these monuments? The answer is the valencians. And with this I don't mean they pay taxes.
Each neighbourhood has a kind of association, called also Falla , in which the people from that area that want to participate pay a subscription. The amount they pay depends of how many people are subscribed, which kind of monument they want to do (size, prize…) and if they have any previous amount of money from any award they won the previous year. It is almost as a football team, to explain it better. If you want to contract the best artist to do your monument, you will need much more money than if you just contract an unknown one. At the same time, if you have hundreds of people paying for the subscription, you will need less money than if you only have about 20. The money they recollect is used not only to pay for the monument, but also to pay for the place they have rented (unless it is owned), which is usually somewhere in the neighbourhood, some premises in the ground floor with the name outside. It also pays for all the things they do there, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly, as leagues (cards,
darts, football, etc), theatre for children, dinners and other activities. This place is called Casal, which derives from the word "casa", which means "home" and "house". So be aware that they use the word Falla to express the festivities (in which case they will say it in plural: Fallas), as a name for the association (la Falla) and as a name for the monument.
The people that are subscribed into one of these Fallas are called falleros and falleras , depending if you are male or female, because in Spanish almost all the nouns that finish in -o are masculine, and almost all the nouns that finish in -a are feminine. If you are fallero or fallera, you also have to buy the traditional costume, which comes from centuries ago, and it is really expensive, sometimes even more than a wedding dress, whith the cheapest around £800. Most of them are made exclusively to the person by a tailor, in natural silk with gold or silver garments and embroidery. The dresses are really impressive, most girls have more than one of these, and it is quite common to have at least three. The suit for the men is not so expensive, but isn't cheap either. They have to wear these costumes in every official act from the Falla, and in the week in March this means everyday, and almost all the time. The girls also have a special arrangement in the hair, which they made in two big plaits (one in each side of the head), and then they are rolled and fixed around and over the ear. I can't explain it better, but I give some links to websites below, where you can see it yourself. Think about a cinnamon roll on top of your ears, as a headset, and you will get a close idea (sorry, I am not being disrespectful, I am just trying to explain this in an easy way , so that everybody can identify this with something known). It is really common to see people at work with this arrangement in the hair, because it is so difficult to do it properly, it takes so much time, and it is so painful; so most of them just stay with it for days.
Each Falla has to do two monuments, one called Falla Mayor (Big Falla or Main Falla), and other one called Falla Infantil (Chidren's Falla). The children's falla is small (5-10 feet), and it usually has fairies, cartoons or any other beautiful characters for children. The Big Falla is bigger, and the topic depends of what the people (or the artist) have selected. As I said before, it could be some kind of satire about something in the year, something traditional, something the people have been talking about, etc.
Usually, you belong to your closest Falla (Association), but there are people that prefer to apply for one of the biggest ones, because of their prestige and history. In Valencia, there are more than 380 Fallas, and each one has two monuments in the street, which makes more than 760 monuments to see, although if you are going to see only the biggest ones, you can probably will see around 15-20. Anyway, these monuments are in the street, on the road, which means that more than half of the roads are closed this week, and the best way to go everywhere is walking or taking the tram / bus to whatever you can get closer. Almost all the big ones are quite close from each other, and there is even a map to get from one to another without getting lost.
In the same way that each Falla has 2 monuments, it also has 2 elected representatives from each sex and age group: Fallera Mayor (selected woman, 16 years old and over), Presidente (selected man, 16 years old and over), Fallera Mayor infantil (selected girl, under 16 years old) and Presidente Infantil (selected boy, under 16 years old). They have been elected by the members of the Falla, and their pictures and names will appear in every act in that year. All the neighbourhood usually knows who are their representatives. Valencia, as a city, also selects 4 people to represent the festivity through the year, and this position is more important than anything here, even more than being Miss Spain or winning X-Factor. You become famous in the city, and from now, you will always have your title beside your name. Usually, the roles are divided: the male is like the principal of the Casal / Falla, so they organise and do the accountancy; and the females are the visible part of it, they are the ones that have more publicity, the ones that are famous, and the ones that do the adverts and other related events. They appear in magazines and newspapers, in tv programs and adverts, in official acts with the Valencian Government, etc. It is not just being beautiful, but you also have to pass a really hard selection which measures your skills in language (especially valencian language, which is the language of the Valencia Community) and how you eat, how you walk and how you smile, per example. They select the Fallera Mayor in between 13 finalists from the ones that were elected the previous year from their Fallas, that means that they select 13 from 360 candidates, and then one of them becomes the Fallera Mayor de Valencia .
There is a big industry around the Fallas, not only the artists that make the monuments, but also the companies that makes the fireworks (really important here), the manufacturers of the dresses, the jewellery, the silk, etc. It is true that they spend thousands of pounds in this festivity, and that the monuments that have cost so much are burned at the end... but it is also true than doing all these things feed also thousands of families.
They are working the whole year to prepare this festivity, selecting the new representatives, selecting the artist that will make their new monument (some students of arts go into this profession when they finish the degree, while others have been in apprenticeship since they left school), preparing acts to collect money (raffles, leagues, awards, theatre), etc.
When March at last arrives , the city changes completely. The roads and streets start to close, they put some kind of big tents with tables and chairs outside, they select the area where they are going to build the monuments; they prepare another area for the fireworks, and another one to have parties with music and drinks.
They have parties with music in almost every single Falla, where everybody can go and have a drink (well, not for free, but it could be around 2-3 pounds the drink) until really late at night… or really early in the morning! The big ones even contract a dj with a massive stage, who can be playing until 5am.. or even later. In the main week (14th-19th March) you can find several places in the street to have a nice hot chocolate and sweet pastries and local bakery sweets, or some savoury food. I personally went to see the main monuments at night when I was living there, starting about 11pm, and finishing about 6am, and I always had to come back other day to see some more.
You will have to pay to see the biggest ones (around 10 of them), and this could cost about £3 per person, but it does worth it. You can not see the big ones just walking around, because sometimes they have corridors behind or inside them and because they are so huge that it is not possible to see them walking around (and because these ones are usually crowed as well). Anyway, they sell a magazine in the stores with the pictures or drawings of the Fallas, and you can just pick it and select the ones that you are more interested in seeing, and just pay for those ones if you see that it is difficult to see them from outside.
All these monuments participate in a competition. Obviously, they don't compete in the same category, because they don't have the same money. They have different categories depending of how much the monument has cost.
There are about 12 big ones, and they compete in the category called Sección Especial (Special Category). Usually, you will find the same names competing into this category, because there is really a huge rivalry between them, and they just go on putting more and more money into it, so it is really difficult to get this money to compete against them.
There is an economic prize as award for the winners of each category, but you don't only compete with your monument, but also with: the way the street has been decorated, the way the street has been illuminated, how your promotional book looks, etc. The Fallas will win money with these and other awards, and this money will be used for the next year. There are some streets that are so beautifully illuminated, with so many lights, that you can feel the heat from them. This is another reason to go and see the monuments at night, because that way you can see also the lights.
THE FIREWORKS
Other important elements in this festivity are the fireworks. In these days, the city smells to gunpowder. There are several kind of firecrackers and bangers on sale these days, even for children (only with sound, or with a small fuse). Every park is full of people playing with them, and I have to say that some times can be a little bit scary. I am not familiar with them, and I remember to run from some streets sometime. In the early morning, the people from the "Fallas" go out and do what they call a despertà (awakening), which consist in lighting up lots of firecrackers in the street, to wake up the people around 7am. Sometimes there is a musical band with them, which follows them the whole day. At 2pm, in the square of the town hall, there is a huge set with hundreds or even thousands of firecrackers, called "mascletà". There is a fence all around this square and inside of it the pyrotechnic man has prepared these firecrackers in a special way to make them explode in a sequence, creating with the sound some rhythm. The sound increases and increases until it finish in a big explosion that you also can feel behind your feet, because the ground trembles. I must admit I have never been able to go close to the fence, as some people do, I was usually too scared, and tried to move forward all the time. You don't need to go into the middle of the people if you do not want to. And you also can watch in on tv, if you are really scare of it! It last around 5 minutes, if my memory is right. Every day this "mascletà" is done by a different company, and they are also famous. Valencian people even have their "favourite" company, and argue about which one is better and why.
These companies also do the fireworks at night. This week in March, there is usually one big firework at midnight, which you can see in the area close to the old river way, which now has been diverted.
Pictures of Valencia (Spain)
This was the winner 2006 and as you can see comparing it to the people and the buildings were huge
This old river way now is a park that crosses the city. The most important day to go and see the fireworks is the 18th of March, because there is an exhibition from the company that won the competition in October the previous year. Some of the people that do these fireworks have done also other firework shows around the world, like part of the Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens, the show to inaugurate Dubai Media city, and several international competitions.This is a really must-see show, and I am sure you will not be disappointed if you stay in the street the 20 minutes that it lasts.
THE "CREMÀ
(when they set the monuments on fire!) This is the last day, the 19th of March. It is a really sad day for all the people that have been working through the year to make this happen, because it means it finishes and everybody has to go back to their routines. Children are on school holidays this week, and some companies also give holidays (or even close!!) these days. So this day the big monument that has been there for almost one week, is set in fire at midnight. People stand around watching it disappear in ashes. You can see people crying, children and older people, while the fire eats the "falla". There is so much effort and work around this monument that is a heartbreaking moment for a lot of them. Sometimes the artist that had to do the monument couldn't finish it in time, so the people from the "falla" try to finish it themselves, painting it, paying a little bit more to contract another artist to finish it, or trying to make the best with what they have got. They are involved from the beginning to the end, and that is why is so important for them, and this is such a sad moment. The first ones to burn are the small ones, the ones for the children. After those, they set on fire the one that won the competition that year, and then the one that was made by the Town Hall. The same order takes place with the big ones: firstly the normal ones, then the winner, and then the one in the Town Hall. You can also watch this on tv. Actually, you can watch almost everything about the fallas on tv this week!
THE RELIGIOUS VIEW
Well, I must say I don't know a lot about this particular thing, because I am not a religious person, and I couldn't get interested in this, but I will explain it the better I can. This festivity is done around two Catholic figures: the Virgin and Sant Joseph. The day the festivity finishes is Sant Joseph, which is Bank Holiday in Spain, and it is also Father's day. While in Fallas, the "virgin of the unprotected ones" or Virgen de los Desamparados is the main figure. The girls go walking from their "Casal" (the premises where they have meetings) to the "Square of the Virgin" in the city centre; they carry flowers and the boys do the way with them as well. The colour of the flowers is decided in advance, by the official group that regulates the Fallas and set the rules, because these flowers are going to be used to make a kind of cloak or cape for a figure in wood with the face of the Virgin, and the pattern is agreed in advance. So all the people in the falla has to go and walk there, and greet the Virgin. This takes around two days from early in the morning to late in the evening to complete, and you can also watch in on tv. It is called the ofrenda (the offering). When this cape is finished, the Virgin is kept in the middle of the square for everybody to see.
PROGRAMMING
Well, it changes almost every year, but slightly. Mainly, these are the acts that take place:
The "ninot" exhibition. The "ninot" is a character of the main monument, the one that the people from the falla think is most beautiful or most interesting. Every falla takes one and put it in exhibition in February, so this is before actually putting the monument in the street. All these characters go into a competition, and the best one is "saved" and moved into a museum before burning the monument.
Around the end of February, you have the first "mascletà" (the show in the Town Hall with the firecrackers), the first "despertà" (the awakening thing with the firecrackers) and the festivity is announced officially by the Mayor of the city. There are some competitions that take place this day.
From the 1st to the 19th of March: there is a "mascletà" every day in the Town Hall Square.
In the First week of March they usually do one "mascletà" in the beach. They also do some cavalcade or procession for children, where they dress up and they tell a story.
15th of March: they start to put the monuments in the street, they start with the small ones, the ones for children, and they go on with the big ones. Everybody is praying for a sunny day this day, because the monuments are done with wood, paper and paint… so you can figure out what happens if it rains!
16th of March: I think this was the day the first firework take place, There will be one every day until the end of the festivity.
17th of March: they give the awards, and each monument will have a kind of flag beside it with the prize they won (if any) in their category.
18th of March: this is the day of the big fireworks.
19th of March: the end… when the monuments are burnt.
ADVICE:
Well, if you decide to go (I hope so, it is a really great experience), be sure you take with you two things: good trainers and clothes you don't mind to damage. Why? The first ones because you are going to walk the whole day, so be sure you take your most comfortable trainers or shoes, my mum went once to visit me while I was living there, and thought I was exaggerating, and took with her some nice plain shoes… I had to give her my own trainers because after half a day she couldn't bear her feet. The second ones because I have said there's gunpowder around everywhere. You don't know when a firecracker is going to fell close to your feet, or the ashes from the fireworks that literally fall down over your head. You have to be comfortable, and you will be busy enough as to worry about your clothes. By the way, they sell everywhere some big and baggy shirt to put over your clothes to avoid damage. This is handy if you have spent thousands of pounds in your dress, like some falleras do!
So be sure you are comfortable and prepared to go, walk and see. Because now you are in Valencia, you can also go and see other things around, like the "City of the Arts and the Sciences", with the biggest oceanographic in Europe; or the entire old historical city. Or even just go shopping, because in Spain some shopping centres close at 10pm (although not all of them!) and some of them are around the areas to see.
"" Food you must try: ""
Paella, for sure, it is supposed to be the original one.
Agua de Valencia, it is a cocktail made with cava/champagne, sugar, orange juice, vodka and gin.
Sepia a la plancha (grilled cuttlefish), really tasty if you like seafood.
clóchinas, mussels, usually prepared steamed with lemon and paprika.
alioli or ajoaceite, this is really strong if prepared properly, is mashed garlic with oil, sometimes also has egg yolk, stronger than the one you find here.
horchata, it is a cold drink made from "chufas" or tiger nuts. Looks almost like soya milk, buy it is really nutty. It has to be taken really cold or frozen.
Well, I finish it here; because I have realised it is getting too long! Please be aware that this is my idea of the "Fallas" after living there for 5 years, but as I was not born there, I only can give details as a tourist, and a person from Valencia can give you more details. I have tried to give a basic idea of all the festivity, and explain it in a way that it can be understood if, like me, you are from outside the area. Spain has many different cultures and festivities, and you certainly will not see this one in any other place but Valencia and surrounding areas. You can find pictures of the monuments and more information about them here ( I still cannot add pictures to my reviews):
http://www.fallasfromvalencia.com/ (all about the Fallas in detail) http://www.comunitatvalenciana.com/ http://www.aboutvalencia.com/ http://fallas.comunitatvalenciana.com/fallas-2008.htm
Please post your review if you have been there! I would love to see what you think! Feel free to ask anything you want to know! :)
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