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Valencia welcomes the spring with its Fallas festival (from 15 to 19 March). Monumental, yet transitory cardboard statues are carefully built over the course of months, to then be devoured by fire in a unique spectacle.
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Las Fallas is Valencia's most international festival. In the week of 19 March, the city fills with gigantic cardboard monuments, called ninots, for a competition that is marked by art, ingenuity and good taste. The origin of the celebration goes back to the carpenter's parot: these were wooden lamps used to light their workshops in winter, which they would burn out in the street on the night before the feast of San José. At first they would make them look like human forms by decorating them with old clothes and fabric. In the mid-19th century, however, they began to increase in size and height and to improve their forms, becoming huge decorative statues.
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Although the most important acts are held during the week of the 19th, Valencia is busy preparing the festive atmosphere from 1 March with the mascletás, noisy firework displays that take place every day at 2pm in Town Hall Square. When the night of the 15th March finally arrives, it is time for the traditional plantà of the fallas. People work all night to erect more than 700 statues in the city's streets and squares. Some even start setting up days before - these huge statues can reach up to 20 metres in height. On the morning of 16th, Valencia dawns with its streets inhabited by caricatures and satirical representations that criticise politicians, celebrities and the most relevant events in the news, with a great sense of humour.
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You can enjoy these impressive scenes for the following days until the cremà, on the night of 19/20, when they are set alight amidst a fascinating spectacle of light, music and fireworks. All are burnt except one ninot which, elected by a popular vote, is saved from the flames to form part of the collection at the Fallero Museum. Another of the most exciting moments of the Fallas is the floral offering to the Virgin Mary. When the Fallas organisations parade on 17 and 18 March in honour of the Virgin, they create a mountain of flowers 14 metres high. Open-air celebrations, parades, bullfights, competitions and other activities complete the festive programme.
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The Virgen de los Desamparados
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The fiesta dedicated to the Patron Saint of the city, the Virgen de los Desamparados, takes place on the second Sunday of May. Valencians are devoted to this virgin whom they affectionately call La Geperudeta in reference to her slight stoop.
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The image of the virgin that is used today in the procession was made in 1945 by Carmelo Vicent and is popularly known as La Peregrina (The Pilgrim)..
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On the eve of the fiesta, a concert is organised by the Municipal Band of Valencia in the Plaza de la Virgen. This is followed by fireworks in the old river bed, and then the Dança - a traditional piece of native dancing, and the Nit d'Albaes which consists of typical songs from the area. The Misa Descuberta (open air Mass) takes place at five o'clock in the morning and the solemn Misa de Infantes at eight. At 10:30am, the image of the Peregrina is transported from the Basilica to the Cathedral through the Puerta de los Hierros by the many followers during El Traslado. There is a mascletá at two in the afternoon, and another procession at five in which the Virgen is carried through the old part of the city, all the while thousands of flower petals being spread about. At the same time, in the Plaza de la Reina there is a typical ceramics.
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On this day, that of Sant Donis, Valencia celebrates the triumphal entry of the King D.Jaime I to the city, and since the Statute of Autonomy was approved the day of the Valencian Community.
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October 9th is Sant Donis, and the founding day of the autonomous region of Valencia. Celebrated on this day is the conquest of the city by Jaime I, and various official acts are staged, the most important of which is a Civic Procession, headed by the regional flag, which is brought from the City Hall and carried around the streets of the city.
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The fair was inaugurated on July 21st, 1871 with a spectacular cavalcade, pavillions, a plant exhibition and a market.
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The celebrations became more important every year, and in 1891, the Batalla de Flores (Flower Battle) was established. This event takes place on the last Sunday of the fair and consists of a battle between ladies travelling on flowered carriages and the eager public.
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Hundreds of thousands of carnations fly through the air for nearly an hour, leaving an impressive and colourful carpet of flowers.
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Since 1886, the International Brass Band Contest takes place during the first two weeks of the fair. It is now celebrated in the bullring and the Palau de la Música.
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Over the next fortnight, the fair formerly known as Feria de San Jaime takes place in the bullring. First class bullfights are guaranteed.
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The Festival in the Viveros Gardens offers a wide variety of performances, from classical ballet to rock concerts, as well as theatre, folk music, gypsy dances and musical comedies.
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To top it all off, the excellent fireworks displays are a must to see.
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The Holy Week is followed by fiestas dedicated to San Vicente Ferrer, Patron Saint of the Autonomous Region of Valencia. The custom is to visit his old home which has been converted into a chapel where children drink from the Pouet de Sant Vicent in order that they "begin to speak at an early age, do not suffer from tonsilitis, do not commit prejury and should never be blasphemous".
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The children represent the miracles in a play performed during the fiesta, on thirteen different altars built in various parts of the city presided over by the image of the saint.
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The oldest altar was built in 1561 and is assembled every year next to the Pouet de San Vicent.
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