The Fallas festival as an intangible heritage of humanity

In 2017, I had the opportunity to celebrate this festival together with friends from Eurojumelages Valencia (Asociación Hermanamientos Europeos Telecomunicaciones Valencia.
From 1 to 19 March, everything in València revolves around the Fallas celebrations, a festival that combines tradition, satire and art and which you should definitely not miss.

The origin of the FALLAS

The beginning of the Fallas goes back to an old custom of the carpenters who, at the beginning of spring, on the night of 19th March, burnt the pieces of wood (parots) in front of their workshops with which they raised the oil lamps that gave them light during the winter.

Little by little, old rubbish and rags were also burnt in this purifying fire, humanising the "parots" until they finally became ninots.The humour of the Valencians soon gave these ninots a critical and ironic sense that has been maintained to this day.

This ninots exhibition contains countless figures that make up the Fallas monuments. All of them are donated by the Valencian Falleras commissions in the hope that their ninot will be spared from the fire, although only two of them are saved each year..

The most beautiful ones can be seen in the exhibition at the Museo de las Ciencias (Science Museum) until 15th March 2024.

Take a look at this impressive video and let yourself be carried away by the impressive spectacle. https://youtu.be/fHH2d6YwHOo?feature=shared

It's worth travelling to the wonderful city of VALENCIA just to see it.

Peter Backes