Fallas festival: a popular tradition full of art and color!

about 1 month ago

Hello people!

Nothing better than welcoming spring than after the local festivals of the region. Precisely Las Fallas are that festival that means leaving behind what was before and starting again, a renewal, like spring.

So I would like to share a little about this festival, part of Spanish culture, and specifically the province of Valencia. And to do this, I join this interesting #CrossCulture community to tell you more about the Fallas, exposing one of them as an example...

Thus Las Fallas are always in the month of March, the official days are from the 15th to the 19th, although from the 1st there are events, and a lot of noise, a lot of firecrackers, firecracker concerts that sound and reverberate at 2pm for nineteen days. But the 15th arrives and the streets appear blocked by large colorful artistic monuments, that is the Fallas.

Each Falla represents a story, rather, they are satirical criticisms of society, politics, events... lately there are those who look at them incorrectly, they are politicized people who have forgotten that the spirit of the Fallas that each Falla artist creates are precisely criticisms. with irony and grace to everything that is not liked. Because then on the 19th everything burns. And the bad things that have happened turn into ashes, and we wake up in silence on the 20th, today in spring, with a new beginning.

I show you one of the Fallas, there is one in each neighborhood, well actually, two, one large in the adult category and another in the smaller children's category. And they are all beautiful, the images and dolls (ninots) that tell various stories, always with a lot of color and a lot of art.

In this one there are many elements, on the other hand, for example, they symbolize dependence on mobile phones and social networks, and in another part there are word games represented in images, but you have to understand the language.

We read the notes below next to each group of elements, and we also look at those flags that indicate the awards that each monument receives, and this one in this small town has won many.

And the other falla, the children's one that symbolizes a trip around the world, with very funny dolls, has also won some prizes among all those competing in each city.

Other details

In Valencia, capital city, some of the most important Fallas are spectacular and gigantic in size, many meters high, but it is crowded with people and you can hardly walk through its streets these days.
In Sagunto it is quieter, but the happy and festive atmosphere is undoubtedly the same. Curiously, in this Falla (Plaza Rodrigo) in addition to the two Fallas, there is another artistic element, this year it is a representation of the four seasons of the year made with recyclable plastic elements (such as bottle caps, etc.) and the truth is that it has remained very nice, an art exhibition that adds more creativity to everything we see around here these days.

And of the four seasons we are left with the beautiful spring that is now beginning, because yesterday on the day of Saint Joseph (patron saint) at night they all burned. There are those who feel sorry for it, but that's life.
In ancient times, the origin of the Fallas were the old furniture that people threw into the street because it was no longer useful and was burned, later that gave way to these beautiful monuments that contain a lot of what we don't like narrated and sculpted in a beautiful and very comic, and all that burns, last night.

Suddenly there is nothing left, no Fallas, no music, no firecrackers, no party, now silence, and when we went to sleep we rested and we leave everything that is no longer useful behind. We wake up with ashes of what was, in a spring full of excitement for new things and for more joy and celebration.

Happy Spring! 🌸🌼💐🌷🌺🌻