Las Fallas Fire festival

The Meek Family
The Meek Family Forum Participant Posts: 336
edited March 2016 in Your stories #1
In England, Father’s day is generally celebrated quite tamely – dad’s given breakfast in bed, has control of the TV remote for the day, is maybe taken out for a meal. It is a day to say thanks to our fathers for all they have done and give them what they would like for a whole 24 hours. 



In Spain though, they celebrate it a little differently. They burn huge statues in the streets and let the kids set off mini fireworks everywhere you look. This is part of Las Fallas, the Spanish fire fiesta, and an annual, weeklong event in which the climax takes place on Father’s day (or Saint Joseph’s day as it is known in Spain). 



There is a reason that the festival takes place on Saint Joseph’s day, which is nearer the beginning of the year than in Great Britain. In the bible, Joseph is the father of Jesus but he was also a carpenter; Las Fallas is inspired by the carpenters of the past. The festival takes place near the beginning of spring, when the carpenters used to burn the wooden sticks they used throughout winter to support their candles. They burned the candlestick to symbolize the arrival of longer days and shorter nights. That burning of the candlestick has grown and grown into the explosive fire festival it is today.



Instead of heading into Valencia, where the larger fiesta takes place, we visited the smaller town of Benicarlo, which hosts its own smaller version of Las Fallas. Dotted around the streets of Benicarlo were towering statues, all nearly reaching the height of the buildings surrounding them. Children ran around, throwing small packets of gunpowder at the feet of unsuspecting passers-by and startling them with the bang it let off or lighting tiny Catherine wheels and a form of sycamore-shaped rocket that spiraled around and hit a few walls. 



We couldn’t just pass by the fireworks shops and not join in the fun! Soon we had our own bag of explosives and were joining the local children (and a few parents) in the celebrations. It was chaos, in the best way, and it had a fun, vibrant atmosphere that was infectious. The weather may have turned for the worst and soaked us at the burning of the statues (or Fallas) but it didn’t take away the fiesta’s excitement or dampen the spirits of those attending, us included.



by Amy (12)





Comments

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited March 2016 #2

    Watch out for La Tomatina! The tomato fiesta later in August. Perhaps you'll be home by then but you've made a start with the fiestas. Fathers Day in the UK was a USA invention that came across in the 20th century. I think we used to have lots of feast days here too, it must have been fun! Smile

  • clv2202
    clv2202 Forum Participant Posts: 2
    edited March 2016 #3

    love reading your posts, you seem to be having a great time and a great place to enjoy yourselves, i love this area of spain and will be visiting oropesa del mar next month (not with the caravan), how far south do you plan to go ? have a great time

    louis

  • The Meek Family
    The Meek Family Forum Participant Posts: 336
    edited March 2016 #4

    I've heard about the Tomatina festival - sounds great fun but what a waste of tomatoes! We won't be in Spain then so we'll miss it unfortunately - an excuse to come back again! We've been hearing about all sorts of festivals throughout the year whilst we've
    been here. They love to fiesta! :-)

  • The Meek Family
    The Meek Family Forum Participant Posts: 336
    edited March 2016 #5

    Hi Louis. We are loving our time in Spain although the time is quickly slipping away. We are spending a month here in total and not making it as far south as we'd like...this time! We are not heading inland (posts to come) to Madrid and then north for the
    ferry back :-( Thanks for your comments. I hope you have a wonderful time in Oropesa del Mar.

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