Yura Marhevka (Israel)-Festival of the Fallas

Воскресенье, 14 Февраля 2010 г. 13:48 + в цитатник

Festival of the Fallas - Art of joking
Text by:

Paula Repo
Photos by: Pasi Rein

The splendor of Fallas is magnificent but short-lived. Every spring these
monuments of art take the plazas and street corners of Valencia for five days,
from March 15 to 19.

Valencia Home Festival of the Fallas:

Outside links (will open in a new window):

The Fallas of Valencia

Above photo - Political figures are present in most Fallas.

They joke about faults in the society - scoffing at
politicians, officials and celebrities - before bursting into flames. Fire that
wipes out the old and brings forth the new has culminated this fiesta of Fallas
for hundrets of years.

In the beginning it was part of the spring cleaning of workshops. Carpenters
said adios to useless things and burned them in honor of their saint. Over the
years this St Joseph's Day ritual has grown up to be a grand fiesta that keeps
the artists and artisans busy all year round in the City of Fallas. Besides the
workshops this large barrio hosts a museum exhibiting the Fallas art from past
decades.

Photo Left - Globalization is portrayed in this monument as a monster swallowing up the
dignity and identity of people.

Go to page 2 of the Fallas, Feel the Rhythm of Thunder.

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More photos of the Fallas can be seen at ValenciaValencia.com (link will open in new window)

For more information on staying in Valencia and at other lodging gems of Spain, contact my recommended Spain Travel Agent.

Note: Madrid and Beyond arranges trips in their entirety, not segments or single nights; they book almost exclusively with three star hotels and above.
Go directly to booking page

Feel the rhythm of thunder
Imaginative and inventive. Not only Fallas need to be this to gain popularity.
Also the pyrotechnics attempt more than just sound and color.

Valencia Home Festival of the Fallas:

Outside links:

falla, fashion
Above photo -Beauty and fashion are common themes in these monuments of art.

Mascletás - orchestrated blastings of hundreds of explosives - take place every day of the festival week in the Town Hall Square.

Unlike traditional fireworks the Mascletás are not about color but about sound. The rhythm of thunder is the booster. Composed of successive stages the spectacle progressively increses the power and rate of the explosions. Most of the gunpowder of more than hundred kilos is reserved for the final, earthquake like stage that makes your whole body to vibrate.

Photo Left - Fire crackers prelude the burning ceremony.

Go to page 3 of the Fallas, Sense the Scent of Spring

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Festival of the Fallas page 5
Text by: Paula Repo
Photos by: Pasi Rein

See the essence of Fallas
The Night of Fire consumes the fallas, but each year people get the chance to vote one of the numerous figures composing the fallas to be exhibited at the Museo Fallero. The collection of this museum includes the most popular Ninots since 1934.

Valencia Home Festival of the Fallas:

Outside links:

More info on Ninots and the Fallas Sculptures (ValenciaValencia.com)

Above photo - Museo Fallero exhibits Ninots that were parts of the Fallas monuments in past years.

Photo Above - The workshop of Maria Jesus Gimenez in the City of Fallas serves a number of carnivals and amusement parks including Mardi Gras and Disneyland.

In the other Fallas museum, Museo del Artista Fallero, you can take a closer look at the work of the artists and artisans. Besides fallas you see their scale models and construction. The City of Fallas itself is worth visiting. You can watch how the figures are born from the papier-mache, wood and wax in the hands of designers, potters, painters and other craftsmen. The workshops serve also other festivals like Mardi Gras, but the characters made for Fallas are special in many ways. Already the materials used for Fallas are different. They need to be combustible and non-polluting. Glue, papier mache and many other substances are cooked in the workshops.

Photo Above - Many of the Ninots in the Fallero museum portray the equality between sexes and the status of men in the society.

Get thrilled with the fire
The Night of Fire is a show of blaze and smoke. In the city of Valencia some 350 fallas flare up. As many of them are more than 20 meters tall, the flames reach high in the sky.

Valencia Home Festival of the Fallas:

Outside links:

Above photo - Fire crackers prelude the burning ceremony.

Photo above -In the Night of Fire the Fallas are consumed by flames.

The air and atmosphere become more and more heated in the
progress of the night. The torching begins at eight and reaches its climax at one in the Town Hall Square where the largest falla is set on fire. Playing with fire in a city packed with festival crowd sounds like a hazardous fun. Precautionary measures warding off the risk of fire actully changed the whole design of fallas in the 1800th century.

When the mayor of Valencia prohibited the placing of fallas against the house walls, the fallas changed from simple dolls to complicated monuments with tens of figures arranged so that you can examine the piece of art from all angles. The locations of fallas are nowadays carefully planned, but just in case, the fire fighters monitor the burning fallas.

Go to page 5 of the Fallas, See the essence of Fallas

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