It's march and we are in Valencia, Spain's third largest city. It's 1am. All around us,fireworks are going off and the streets are full of noisy revellers. "Welcome to Las Fallas", people grin.Here you're going to see how Valencias party!.
Seven hours later, I understood what they meant.
Las Fallas (the bonfire)explodes over Valencia every March from the 12th to the 19th. It takes the whole of the previous year to get organised and everybody joins in the preparations. The city buzzes with a festive vibe all week, but, like all good parties, it is at night when people really get down to some serious celebrating.
The tradition of Las Fallas began in the 18th century. At that time, craftsmen used special candles to light up the dark evenings while they were working.At the end of winter they celebrated by burning all their waste material in a ceremony that the brought together people from all the neigbouring communities. Before burning the waste material, they made it into life-like statues, and the dressed them up to look like well-known but unpopular local characters.
The festival reaches its climax on 19th March, a public holiday and St Joseph's Day. This is the night when the cardboard statues are burnt The last statue burns down and ends Las Fallas. It is a sad moment, but the Valencians don't have time to mourn the end of this year's festival.After all, they're too busy planning for the next one.
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