Las Fallas

The Las Fallas Festival takes place on 19th March in Valencia to celebrate Saint Joseph. Las Fallas means the torches. Las Fallas is the night when there is the deliberate destruction of over 700 papier-mâché statues which have been created over the past year. Each statue varies between six and ten metres tall. At ten o'clock on the night of the 19th people set the sculptures on fire. The evening is not over until the bonfires have burnt themselves out. On the 15th March, the sculptures are judged. The best sculpture will be kept until next year.

There are two displays of fireworks. The first is in the afternoon, is to make as much noise as possible. A long succession of over-lapping explosions gradually builds. This takes place near the railway station. The second display, in the evening, is far more traditional. This takes place along the dry river bed which snakes through the centre of the city. This often begins at midnight.

No one is quite certain how this ceremony came into being. The earliest written references date back to only the 18th Century, but many believe the festival originated much earlier than this.