Fallas!!!!!
If blogger would let me make the heading bigger I would. Ever since I arrived in Valencia all I heard about was you are so lucky that you decided to study abroad 1) in Spain and 2) in Spain during spring. This is due to the sole fact that Valencia has one of the worlds biggest festivals for four days from March 15th to the 19th of every year (and you don't have to miss the football season). When I say a large festival I'm going to paint you a picture. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, and has a million citizens. During Fallas the population TRIPLES! That is three million people packed into only the old historic block of Valencia. It's intense. Everywhere you wanna go takes you five times longer than normal to get there. All of the streets are shoulder to shoulder as you walk.
Side note: this event also brings all of Spain's most talented pick-pockets into one city. watch out!
Anyways for four days the city goes crazy. No one really works. There are restaurants and grocery stores open but other than that; no one works. They close down the streets and everyone takes part in the festivities. I forgot to mention this earlier but starting on the 12th of March, every day at two o'clock in the afternoon they have a thing called the Mascletá. Its kinda hard to explain but they fence off the center of the city's main plaza (Probably 40 yards by 60 yards), and fill it with fire crackers. Im not talking about m-80's either. These firecrackers are bombs. They have a five minute show each day and you feel like you are in a war zone. The firecrackers are about the size of three Nestle tollhouse cookie dough rolls taped together. No exaggerations. When they go off, if you are within a hundred yards of it it feels like someone has just punched you in your chest. IT'S WILD! For those of y'all who knew me well when I was young I am a huge Piro and I looked forward to this event every day. I only missed one and that was because my tuesday Spanish class doesn't get out until two and it would be impossible to make it there in time/ get a good seat with three million people in front of me. Anyways the point of the Mascletá is the sound not the view. The piro who designed it has essentially created the worlds loudest drum line. My favorite part is the last two minutes of the Mascletá. It is essentially the grand finally and there is so much smoke given off by the "petardos" or firecrackers that it blocks out the sun. You are in a shaded war zone. The majority of the time we left early enough to be really really close. To the point that we were getting hit with parts of the partardos and left at the end of the show covered in the remnants. The crazy thing is that as the week goes on and it gets closer to the nineteenth they bring in better and better piros to do the Mascletá. It is said that between the Mascletá and the 45 min firework shows that would go off each night, the piros come to Fallas every year to test out fireworks for the next Olympics. They see how the millions of people react to different things so they can combine the fireworks that evoke the best reaction and have one hell of a show for the next Olympics.
Next is the Fallas. If you don't know what they are they are floats that range from "ninots" which are about ten feet tall to the HUGE Fallas that are five stories tall. During the entire year teams of artists construct the falls out of wood, styrofoam, paper maché, and paint. By March 15th their are over three hundred and fifty Fallas throughout the city. After they have all been judged and they have given people time to look at them for a few days, THEY BURN THEM! All three hundred fifty plus five story to ten foot Fallas burn at midnight on the 19th. It must look like the entire city is on fire from an areal view.
My Favorite Falla was one of D'Vinci. It was one of the five story ones, it it was amazing to see burn. I could sit here and describe it to you all day but I would rather show you pictures to safe us both time.
If blogger would let me make the heading bigger I would. Ever since I arrived in Valencia all I heard about was you are so lucky that you decided to study abroad 1) in Spain and 2) in Spain during spring. This is due to the sole fact that Valencia has one of the worlds biggest festivals for four days from March 15th to the 19th of every year (and you don't have to miss the football season). When I say a large festival I'm going to paint you a picture. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, and has a million citizens. During Fallas the population TRIPLES! That is three million people packed into only the old historic block of Valencia. It's intense. Everywhere you wanna go takes you five times longer than normal to get there. All of the streets are shoulder to shoulder as you walk.
Side note: this event also brings all of Spain's most talented pick-pockets into one city. watch out!
Anyways for four days the city goes crazy. No one really works. There are restaurants and grocery stores open but other than that; no one works. They close down the streets and everyone takes part in the festivities. I forgot to mention this earlier but starting on the 12th of March, every day at two o'clock in the afternoon they have a thing called the Mascletá. Its kinda hard to explain but they fence off the center of the city's main plaza (Probably 40 yards by 60 yards), and fill it with fire crackers. Im not talking about m-80's either. These firecrackers are bombs. They have a five minute show each day and you feel like you are in a war zone. The firecrackers are about the size of three Nestle tollhouse cookie dough rolls taped together. No exaggerations. When they go off, if you are within a hundred yards of it it feels like someone has just punched you in your chest. IT'S WILD! For those of y'all who knew me well when I was young I am a huge Piro and I looked forward to this event every day. I only missed one and that was because my tuesday Spanish class doesn't get out until two and it would be impossible to make it there in time/ get a good seat with three million people in front of me. Anyways the point of the Mascletá is the sound not the view. The piro who designed it has essentially created the worlds loudest drum line. My favorite part is the last two minutes of the Mascletá. It is essentially the grand finally and there is so much smoke given off by the "petardos" or firecrackers that it blocks out the sun. You are in a shaded war zone. The majority of the time we left early enough to be really really close. To the point that we were getting hit with parts of the partardos and left at the end of the show covered in the remnants. The crazy thing is that as the week goes on and it gets closer to the nineteenth they bring in better and better piros to do the Mascletá. It is said that between the Mascletá and the 45 min firework shows that would go off each night, the piros come to Fallas every year to test out fireworks for the next Olympics. They see how the millions of people react to different things so they can combine the fireworks that evoke the best reaction and have one hell of a show for the next Olympics.
Next is the Fallas. If you don't know what they are they are floats that range from "ninots" which are about ten feet tall to the HUGE Fallas that are five stories tall. During the entire year teams of artists construct the falls out of wood, styrofoam, paper maché, and paint. By March 15th their are over three hundred and fifty Fallas throughout the city. After they have all been judged and they have given people time to look at them for a few days, THEY BURN THEM! All three hundred fifty plus five story to ten foot Fallas burn at midnight on the 19th. It must look like the entire city is on fire from an areal view.
My Favorite Falla was one of D'Vinci. It was one of the five story ones, it it was amazing to see burn. I could sit here and describe it to you all day but I would rather show you pictures to safe us both time.
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| I had the best seat in the house to watch D'Vinci Burn. (ps It was really really hot) |
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| D'Vinci's face melting. |
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| Burn Baby BURN! |
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| how they are made. |
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| how they pice them together |
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| D'Vinci before being light on fire. |
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| This one they do not burn, it is the Virgin Mary. Everything but her head, the staff, and the babies are flowers. REALLy impressive. |
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| classic. |
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| bull fight. |
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| back of D'Vinci |
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| There was a whole section of town that had lights like this. |
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