{"id":67,"date":"2011-03-23T12:53:38","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T04:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/?p=67"},"modified":"2011-03-23T12:54:45","modified_gmt":"2011-03-23T04:54:45","slug":"la-fallas-fireworks-mascletta-in-valencia-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/23\/la-fallas-fireworks-mascletta-in-valencia-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"La Fallas &#8211; Fireworks, Mascletta in Valencia, Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Las Fallas<\/strong> (Fallas de Valencia) is held every year from 15 &#8211; 19 March in Valencia City Spain.\u00a0 This is one of the best Spanish festivals which has become an international event.<\/p>\n<p>The  entire city erupts into four days of what can only be described as  amazing FUN. The streets are closed and the partying begins!<\/p>\n<p>To the great merriment of all huge wooden cardboard and papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 figures (known as <strong>fallas<\/strong>), are erected all over the city.<\/p>\n<p>This is all done very tongue-in-cheek as the figures satirically portray political and well-known artists.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Origins &amp; Timetable of Festival<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The  festival is said to have originated around the end of the 16th century  when local carpenters burnt left over wood that had accumulated over the  year.<\/p>\n<p>The festival is also in honor of <strong>San Jos\u00e9<\/strong>, the patron saint of carpenters.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The festival begins on the last Sunday in February outside <strong>Torres de Serranos<\/strong> in Barrio del Carmen with <strong>La Crida<\/strong>. Music and fireworks and the fallas queen mark the official opening of this truly amazing festival.<\/li>\n<li>La <strong>&#8216;Mascleta&#8217;<\/strong> are firework displays which are held every day in <strong>Plaza del Ayuntamiento<\/strong> until the 19 March.The city celebrates Las Fallas Valencia with the daily ritual of the <em>Mascleta<\/em> at 2pm. Everything in the city stops for ten minutes and all you can  hear is the deafening sound of gunpowder which is what the <em>Mascleta<\/em> is.<\/li>\n<li>Nightly  Firework displays are a ritual and can be seen in the Turia Gardens  (old Turia riverbed). At midnight on 18 March the nightly firework  displays culminate in what is called <strong>Nit del Foc<\/strong> (Night of Fire) and the festival itself culminates in the burning of the Fallas on the 19 March, <strong>San Jos\u00e9&#8217;s<\/strong> day.<\/li>\n<li>At the stroke of midnight <strong>la cr\u00e9ma<\/strong> (the burning) begins. <strong>Plaza del Ayuntamiento<\/strong> becomes like a huge fire-ball with huge flames leaping into the air from the burning of the fallas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All  that very hard work and money very quickly goes up in smoke and the  lovely fallas are reduced to ashes! A few of the winning smaller  versions of the fallas &#8211; <strong>&#8216;ninots&#8217;<\/strong> &#8211; are saved and kept in <strong>Museo Fallero<\/strong> &#8211; Fallas Museum, Placa Monte-olivete, 4 which is opposite the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: blue;\">Festival Dresses<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>An important part of Las Fallas includes the fabulous dresses which many of the Valencian women and children  wear to the festival and to the <strong>&#8216;Offrenda de Flores&#8217;<\/strong> (offering of flowers) to Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de los Desamparados (Patron of Valencia).<\/p>\n<p>Around  ninety thousand Valencian women and girls called falleras (men are  referred to as falleros) carry bouquets of red carnations and roses  (some white) to the Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de los Desamparados &#8211; Basilica of the Virgin of the Forsaken. The flowers are then  magically woven into a beautiful mantel which covers the Virgin.<br \/>\n<strong>Las Fallas<\/strong> wouldn&#8217;t be complete without the gastronomic delights of the region. Tantalizing dishes such as paella Valenciana, <strong>bu\u00f1elos<\/strong> (small doughnuts made from pumpkin &#8211; dipped into hot thick chocolate) and <strong>churros<\/strong> (fritters) are available on every street corner.<\/p>\n<p>Horchaterias, bars, restaurants and clubs are full to overflowing with people enjoying the most amazing festival ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Las Fallas (Fallas de Valencia) is held every year from 15 &#8211; 19 March in Valencia City Spain.\u00a0 This is one of the best Spanish festivals which has become an international event. The entire city erupts into four days of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/23\/la-fallas-fireworks-mascletta-in-valencia-spain\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[17,18,20,19],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-fireworks-events","tag-la-fallas","tag-mascletta","tag-spain","tag-valencia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/70"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}