|
Story and photography by Susan McKee
Fallas in Valencia
Bam! I saw the firecracker flash just before I heard it. Bam! Bam! The trio of explosions echoed off the office buildings lining the narrow downtown street. Then the boys throwing the noisemakers giggled and ran off. I stepped over the still-smoking debris and continued down the street.
Just another day during Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain. Flowers, anthropomorphic rabbits and dyed eggs aren’t sufficient signals of the end of winter for these Spaniards.
For Valencians, looking forward to spring does include flowers, but also lots of firecrackers, cannons, fireworks and flames.
Fallas – the core of the celebration is March 14 through 19 each year -- is a ritual rooted in pagan times that’s been recast as a Roman Catholic celebration  welcoming spring. It’s hard to imagine how any work gets done in this city of 820,000 during those six days.
Let’s start with the flowers. Hundreds of thousands of blossoms are carried through the streets of this town on the Mediterranean coast of Spain during two days of elegant ritual.
On March 17 and 18, men, women and children dressed in very expensive traditional costumes, accompanied by bands playing everything from boleros to rock music, parade through the center of town carrying floral offerings to the plaza in front of the Basílica de La Virgen de Los Desamparados.
There, a temporary 46-foot-tall representation of “Our Lady of the Forsaken” (the city’s patron saint), waits. A dozen costumed workmen scramble up and down the wooden framework of the Madonna’s enormous cape, catching the flowers tossed to them at the end of the parade and arranging them by color to create an elaborate design. More blossoms are used to create tapestries rising high on either side of the door to the basilica.
A queen and her court are chosen from among the thousands of elegantly costumed women, and they’re fêted at a gala luncheon downtown on the second day of the parade.
Then there’s the omnipresent noise. Throughout Fallas, one is assaulted by music, firecrackers, cannons and fireworks. More than 300 bands march around the streets, playing from morning ‘til night – when fireworks light up the sky.
 At 2 p.m. each afternoon in the center of downtown, crowds gather to watch the boom of the mascletàs, with rockets bursting overhead sending down streamers, and gunpowder exploding into cannon fire – mercifully without the cannon balls. One can’t walk down the street in Valencia without being “attacked” by firecracker-wielding kids – and adults.
Since Las Fallas literally means "the fires" in the Valencian dialect, it’s logical that fire is the crowning touch to this boisterous festival. Centerpieces of the annual festival are some 700-plus constructions of papier-mâché layered over wooden frames. (Many of the more elaborate have figures carved from polyurethane or soft cork.)
Each is designed, financed and produced by a neighborhood association. Most are small – just a few feet tall -- but the biggest and most expensive rise up more than 65 feet right in the center of key intersections in the central city. The fanciful confections, peopled with figures called “ninots” (“grotesque figurines”), often offer satirical commentary on the popular topics of the day.
It’s not a celebration that would take place in the United States – because as midnight approaches on March 19, La Cremà begins. Huge crowds gather in the streets. Fire fighting equipment rounded up from every corner of the country stands at the ready – and each of these highly flammable structures is set on fire. The flames crackle and leap, starting slowly but spreading quickly to engulf every inch of the massive constructions.
Homecoming bonfires at American universities can’t hold a candle to these raging conflagrations that send flaming cinders off into the night. Spectators are showered with ash, and firefighters are kept busy hosing down rooftops almost ‘til dawn.
Traditionally, one of the fanciful structures is saved each year by popular vote, and moved to permanent display in the Fallas Museum.
The Christian connection? March 19 is St. Joseph’s Day, and he was a carpenter after all!
Architecture fans know Valencia as the home of renowned Modernist architect Santiago Calatrava (he was born just outside the city in the hamlet of Benimámet). Some of his most sculptural buildings are  found here, including the Hemispheric at the City of Arts and Sciences (it resembles nothing so much as a lidded eyeball). The complex of museums, gardens and performing arts venues is located in the dry riverbed of the Turia (the river was diverted in the 1960s to stop periodic flooding).
Foodies know Valencia for its signature crop – the Valencia orange – but also for paella. This popular dish – its name is derived from the word in the Valencian dialect for a distinct kind of large, flat frying pan – has three key ingredients: rice, saffron and olive oil. Additions are as many and varied as the cooks who make it (chicken, shrimp and vegetables are the most common), but the traditional paella always has a base of crispy, toasted rice called “socarrat” in Valencian.
DETAILS:
Official website for Spanish tourism: http://www.spain.info/
Valencia tourism website (in English):
http://www.turisvalencia.es/home.aspx
Santiago Calatrava’s website: http://www.calatrava.com/main.htm
© February 2010 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
|
