The Fallas (Valencian: Falles; Spanish: Fallas) is a traditional celebration held annually in the city of Valencia, Spain; it is the patronal festival of the town. The five main days celebrated are from 15 to 19 March, while the Mascletà, a pyrotechnic spectacle of firecracker detonation, takes place every day from 1 to 19 March. The term Fallas refers to both the celebration and the Falla monuments (Falla, singular; Fallas/Falles, plural) burnt during the celebration. The Fallas (Falles in Valencian) festival was added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage of humanity list on 30 November 2016. A number of towns in the Valencian Community have similar celebrations inspired by the original Fallas de Valencia festival. For example, the Bonfires of Saint John (Hogueras de San Juan or Fogueres de Sant Joan) in Alicante or the Fiestas de la Magdalena in Castellón de la Plana.
Each neighbourhood of the city has an organised group of people, the Commission, that meets at the Casal faller, and works all year long holding fundraising parties and dinners, usually featuring the noted dish paella, a specialty of the region. Each commission produces a construction known as falla which is burned the last day of the celebration. Currently there are approximately 400 registered commissions in Valencia.
The name of the festival is the plural of the Valencian word falla. The word's derivation is as follows:
Latin fax (accusative facem), "torch" → Latin facula (diminutive; accusative faculam) → Vulgar Latin *faclam → Valencian falla.
Formerly, much time would be spent by the casal faller preparing the ninots (Valencian name for puppets or dolls). Traditionally during the four days leading up to 19 March, each group takes its ninot out for a grand parade, and then mounts it, each on its own elaborate firecracker-filled cardboard and paper-mâché artistic monument, in a street of the given neighbourhood. This whole assembly is a falla. Today the grand parade is held much earlier and forms the official commencement of the construction work.
The ninots and their falles are constructed according to an agreed-upon theme that has traditionally been a satirical jab at whatever draws the attention of the fallers (the registered participants of the casals). In modern times, the two-week-long festival has spawned a substantial local industry, to the point that an entire suburban area has been designated the Ciutat fallera (Falles City). Here, crews of artists and artisans, sculptors, painters, and other craftsmen, all spend months producing elaborate constructions of paper and wax, wood and polystyrene foam tableaux towering up to five stories, composed of fanciful figures, often caricatures, in provocative poses arranged in a gravity-defying manner. Each of them is produced under the direction of one of the many individual neighbourhood casals fallers who vie with each other to attract the best artists, and then to create the most outrageous allegorical monument to their target. There are about 750 of these neighbourhood associations in Valencia, with over 200,000 members, or a quarter of the city's population.
Since 1934 each of the fallas sends one of their figures to a competition, the Exposició del Ninot. This competition, which is won by popular vote, determines which of the ninots will be spared from burning (ninot indultat). This ninot will go on to be placed in the Museo Fallero.
During Fallas, many people wear their casal faller dress of regional and historical costumes from different eras of València's history. The dolçaina (an oboe-like reed instrument) and tabalet (a kind of Valencian drum) are frequently heard, as most of the different casals fallers have their own traditional bands.
Although the Falles is a very traditional event and many participants dress in medieval clothing, the ninots for 2005 included such modern characters as Shrek and George W. Bush, and the 2012 Falles included characters like Barack Obama and Lady Gaga. A literary contest organised annually since 1903 by the Lo Rat Penat cultural association recognises the work of local poets who write satirical verses in Valencian that explain these characters. The faller verses are collected in booklets (llibrets) and distributed to participants.
The five days and nights of Fallas might be described as a continuous street party. There are a multitude of processions: historical, religious, and comedic. Crowds in the restaurants spill out into the streets. Explosions can be heard all day long and sporadically through the night. Everyone from small children to elderly people can be seen throwing fireworks and noisemakers in the streets, which are littered with pyrotechnical debris. The timing of the events is fixed, and they fall on the same date every year, though there has been discussion about holding some events on the weekend preceding the Fallas, to take greater advantage of the tourist potential of the festival or changing the end date in years where it is due to occur in midweek.
But outside the Fallas proper, the Fallas season within the Valencian Community begins on the final Sunday of February and lasts till 19 March, St. Joseph's Day.
Held on the last Sunday of February, La Crida is held in the evening at the Torres de Serranos, one of the historical gateways to the city. Preceded by a fireworks display and a son et lumierie show, the city's mayor presents the keys to the Fallera Major and her princess, and after their addresses formally declaring the commencement of the festivities, the Himne de l'Exposició and Marcha Real are played by the city band to mark the formal start of the festivity season.
Each day of Falles begins at 8:00 am with La Despertà ("the wake-up call"). Brass bands appear from the casals and begin to march down every street playing lively music. Close behind them are the fallers, throwing large firecrackers in the street as they go.
The Mascletà, an explosive barrage of coordinated firecracker and fireworks displays, takes place at 2:00 pm from March 1 to 19 (including the festival proper); the main event is the municipal Mascletà in the Plaça de l'Ajuntament where the pyrotechnicians compete for the honour of providing the final Mascletà of the festes (on 19 March). At 2:00 pm the clock chimes and the Fallera Major, dressed in her fallera finery, will call from the balcony of City Hall, Senyor/a pirotècnic/a, pot començar la mascletà! ("Mr./Ms. Pyrotechnic, the Mascletà may commence!"), and the Mascletà begins.
The Mascletà is almost unique to the Valencian Community, and very popular with the Valencian people. Smaller neighbourhoods often hold their own mascletà for saints' days, weddings and other celebrations.
A nighttime variant runs in the evening hours by the same pyrotechnicans that were present in the afternoon. In some days, women pyrotechnicians are selected to compete. The event is televised regionwide.
On the day of the 15th before 8 am, in a tradition called the Plantà, all of the falles infantils are to be finished being constructed, and next morning before 8 am falles majors (big Falles) are to be completed. If not, they face disqualification.
Once the City Falles Major is finally done, as well as the rest of the falles majors, a fireworks display – Amb de las Falles – is held at City Hall Square to pay tribute to everyone who made these works possible.