The Fallas Fiestas in Alicante consist of lights, gunpowder, flowers, traditional costumes, music, and a great deal of fun and partying, all part of a unique event known as the Fallas Fiestas.
Valencia celebrates each year the final days of the Winter and the arrival of Spring with spectacular fires and pyrotechnics. From March 15 to 19 (the feast of Saint Joseph, Father´s Day), Valencia is given over to a carnival of bonfires, fiesta and fireworks .
Displayed on every corner all over the city are colourful ninots, giant papier-mâché figures often 20 feet tall or even more that have been paraded through the streets and then placed in fantasy groups to tower over excited spectators. Valencia City has huge displays; each one in some way satirises a political figure, or a soap star, or more exotic creatures from the movies, TV and sports idols. Some of them are grotesque – others playful and some a joke – all are larger than life and Alicante puts on almost as good a show as Valencia City.
Every day at 2pm firecrackers rip through the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in an noisy event called la Mascleta. This gunpowder event is very popular and involves different neighbourhood groups competing for the most impressive volley, ending with the terremoto, (meaning “earthquake”) as hundreds of masclets explode.
Another important event is the Flower Offering, a beautiful ceremony every March 17th and 18th, that honours Valencia’s patron Virgin. Thousands of Falleras and Falleros arrive to the city from every corner of the Valencian Community and take the streets wearing traditional costumes and dancing to offer bouquets to the giant image of the Virgin.
Historians say that the origins of the festival go back to the time when carpenters cleared out their workshops at the end of winter, throwing out odds and ends of wood and old candles and lighting them on the street the day of Saint Joseph.
Nowadays, celebrations draw to an end with a fabulous firework display called the Nit del Foc (“The Night of Fire”), on March 18. All Fallas burn all over the city in a tremendous spectacle of fire and joy.
