After almost a year of preparations Valencia celebrates with gaiety, energy and fireworks its major and one of the best known festivals of Spain: the Fallas. The Fallas are creations of paper mache, wood and wax, built in the streets. The figures, which represent a whole year's work for hundreds of people are burnt on the night of St. Joseph - 19 March. These figures, allude to events and personalities of the day. Half satirical, half symbolical, they are created in a style somewhere between comic strips and Walt Disney cartoons. For one week the Valencians and their visitors are both spectators and participants in the spectacle which goes beyond the walls of the great theater which this city becomes. The international projection of the Fallas grows every year. The celebration of the Fallas began in the Middle Ages. On the night of St. Joseph the carpenters' guild used to light a bonfire in honor of their saint. In it, they burnt the standing pole on which they had kept their lamp during the winter - the estai - and the sweepings from the workshop. The custom of burning an effigy in the blaze is somewhat subsequent. The feuds between the different workshops provoked the creation of grotesque figures which represented rivals, for the purpose of making everyone laugh at them. The other theory suggests that the actual tradition of lighting bonfires in honor of the saints arose from pagan customs which Christianity made its own, as it was too difficult to prohibit or condemn them, since they were already ceremonies of great popularity. The theory of the Ninot in the middle of Lent, the third, relates that during the 17th century, effigies tied to a stick were burnt in the market place. The Fallas are divided into several important stages. One of them: Mascletá is the noisiest act of the whole Fallas celebration. Rows of, and single, firecrackers (by the thousands), making Valencia as deafening as the shot heard around the world. The Crema is the culmination of the Fallas. For some it is the saddest moment, while for others it is the high point of the festival. On the night of the feast of St. Joseph, 19 March, the Fallas are lit. The last effigies to be devoured by the flames are those Fallas that have been awarded prizes by the General Fallas Committee and those in the City Hall square. Only one "ninot" is saved each year, from the flames by popular vote, and exhibited in the Museum of the Ninot together with those from various years which won the same privilege. Kilos and kilos of fireworks surround the monuments. At about midnight Valencia goes up in flames. The spectacle of the fire and noise, produced by more than three hundred fires spread throughout the city, is quite something to see! See more on my website: http://pka.free.fr