One of the craziest, noisiest and most entertaining celebrations you could witness in Spain is “Las Fallas”. This Valencian celebration that praises Saint Joseph is very popular for its big street monuments made out of paper, wax, wood and styrofoam. The height of the falla statues might vary, some can be up to five stories high but  they all try to make fun of our society recreating all sorts of popular figures like politicians, actors, footballers… A falla is just a parody of our everyday reality.

Each city neighbourhood has its own “club” called “Casal Faller” and its members work hard during the whole year to create la falla that eventually is burnt on a bonfire on the 19th of March, St. Joseph day.

The Fallas usually last for 5 days and during those days Valencia is an enormous street party.

From very early in the morning, the falleros, those are the members of the “casal faller”, and their local wind band go on the street throwing firecrackers and playing popular songs to wake up all the neighbours. After they all go to the “casal” for a popular breakfast made out of hot chocolate, buñuelos and other traditional food.

Around lunch time, at the main square, takes place “la mascleta”. This is the noisiest and craziest part of the whole celebration. At the mascleta an unbelievable amount of fireworks are fired and the noise and the smoke is just incredible. It feels like you are in the middle of a war fire but everybody is there in expectation, enjoying it , waiting for the big cheer at the end of the mascleta.

On the afternoon of the  16th and 17th of March the “falleros and fallelas” wearing their popular costumes walk on a music parade to bring flowers to the cathedral where a big Virgin momument is build up out on the street.

And if you thought the party was over wait for the evening, there are more firework displays, more music festivals…. the party goes on until very late hours.

On the night of the 19th the fallas are burnt and after a few days the normality comes back to the city. It’s time to relax from the big celebration days but it’s also time  to get ready for the next year. The falleros don’t waste anytime and soon after the fallas they get on again.