Ciberfallas International

Batalla de las Flores (Battle of the Flowers 2007

Batalla de las Flores (Battle of the Flowers).

There are several things Valencia is passionate about so much that they become an art form here. Spanish music, fireworks, ceramics, rice dishes… Flowers are definitely one of those. Locals sometimes call Valencia the city of music, light and flowers. Valencians decorate their city with flowers on every possible occasion, and they do amazing things with them. Flowers are offered to every patron saint on his day. But the Battle of the Flowers (Batalla de Las Flores) is the ultimate display of what the Valencians can do.

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Preselection of the Court of Honour

Preselection of the Court of Honour

This is a preliminary stage for the selection of Fallera Mayor (the Queen of the Fallas). The election itself will take place in Valencia in September. This is the most prestigious title for any Valencian woman (those who still live in tradition, that is). Those who did not make it to Fallera Mayor become her Court of Honour.

It is realized in the month of Julio, in zones and park enabled for the event.

Those will be pompous, ritualised events with traditional Valencian costumes and music.

Experimental falla. Mosen Sorell Corona 2009 photo: Lázaro de la Peña

Innovative and Experimental fallas. (Fallas Innovadoras y Experimentales)

Monuments “falleros” who as his elements and treatment of topics and materials have an innovative and experimental concept.

The design and the creativity is valued.

Constructed with combustible material, there being valued positively not utilization of pollutant materials not harmful to the environment

Fallas 2009 palets

I reward in the shape of banner that is granted to the commissions “falleras”.
It can be for his social labor, activities, sport, theatre .. or for the monument “fallero”, who simultaneously is divided by sections according to cost of the same one .

Dresses and jewellery, and traditional costumes

It is true that the Fallas festivity has brought about a resurgence of traditional Valencian costumes, bringing back styles from the 18th century rescued from rural treasure chests, second-hand shops and antique dealers. Valencia is the only city in Spain that still does silk weaving on manual looms. Delicate damasks, brocades and flowered silk cloth called “espolín” containing multiple colours intertwined with silver and gold thread combine to form a concert in textile fabrics. Only 20cm of flowered silk cloth can be woven in one day, usually at a cost of 2,000 to 250,000 euros per metre, and a dress normally requires from 10 to 12 metres. Luxury prevails everywhere one looks. Read the rest of this entry »

The fire ritual

As a festival for all the senses, the Fallas culminate with the “Cremà”, or burning of all the monuments, on 19th March. This fire ritual consumes a whole year of work, a whole year of dreams. At ten o’clock the children’s fallas are set to the torch, amidst music and fireworks. At midnight, Valencia astonishes the entire world each year by burning its street monuments to ashes, ending with the fallas in the “special section”, whose budgetsare in the range of 400.000 euros  each. Throughout the city fireworks are set off and the flames consume the gigantic figurines as onlookers stand in silence, with eyes reflecting the red flames, amid crackling red-hot wood and showeringsparks and thick smoke.
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The Flower offering

A floral offering to the Virgen de los Desamparados (Virgin of the Forsaken)

In a profusion of beauty like few others, the Fallas festivity has always included a flower offering to Our Lady of the Forsaken since 1945. Two full afternoons are dedicated to the parades composed of all the Fallas Commissions, headed by the Fallas Queens and their Courts of Honour followed by standard bearers and marching bands in a ceremony in which traditional costumes and flower bouquets are the major attractions.
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The Central Fallas Association J.C.F.

(Junta Central Fallera) The Central Fallas Association, a Valencia City Council body that coordinates the Fallas festivity throughout the city.

The president, together with a wide team of assistants, is in charge of this coordination, in order to celebrate a succesful Fallas festival.

It is made up of the following

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Castillo Photo:Josep V. Zaragoza

Valencia is a land of pyrotechnics. There is barely an event held in this region, whether public or private, a popular celebration or a simple family meeting, that isn’t accompanied by the noise and smell of gunpowder.

The Fallas, as the prime example of a popular Valencian fiesta, has a highly varied programme of fireworks displays: from daytime “mascletàs” (see the section referring to them) to ever-more creative and exciting pyrotechnical shows taking place at night, starting from the 15th March, in the old Turia riverbed; specifically, between the Puente de la Exposición – called “La Peineta” (The Comb) by locals – and the Puente de las Flores.

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The mascletà itself is like a concert of gunpowder: pyrotechnicians carefully study the rhythm of firework sequences, launches and whistles, combining them in a spectacular crescendo that concludes with the “terremoto” (earthquake): hundreds of “masclets” exploding on the ground simultaneously. All of this happens in barely six or seven minutes.

Mascletà fallas photo:ciberfallas.com

There is no fireworks display comparable to a “mascletà” and the emotions it arouses can only be understood by experiencing it at least once. Read the rest of this entry »