Have you ever been in the Benidorm’s “Fallas”?

Download the program of events for 2011  Fallas Benidorm, here

Download the book from the local board  fallera benidorm2011, here

We can not compare with the great Valencia’s Fallas of millions of Euros in cost, but as Valencians, we are very proud to celebrate this festival in our city.
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Would you like to know more about where this party come from? Are you foreigner and do not you know what the fallas mean?

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“Las Fallas” is an international tourist interest festival based on artistic constructions made ​​with combustible materials. Usually come with satirical current affairs.

Back to a tradition of the early eighteenth century, when the Valencians carpenters, at the end of each winter, burned their “parots” (structures of which they hung the lanterns that gave them light) because with the spring arrival days get longer, it was no longer needed. With the passage of time, and the church mediation, the burning of these “parots”  was the same date as  the eve of the patron’s feast saint of carpenters, San Jose.

The tradition was undergoing changes over time. And people were adding clothes to adopt human physiognomy to the “parot”. They also began to incorporate some posters related with very well known people alluding to know the neighborhood. They gave it a satirical and burlesque content to draw attention to the neighbors. In addition, children go from house to house asking for “a estoreta velleta” (an old rug), which became a popular song to collect any old furniture and utensils to burn in a bonfire along with the “parot. ” These were the first “ninots parots”. Over time the local people joined the process of preparation of the structure and were born monuments that incorporated several figures (called “ninots”).

Until the early twentieth century “fallas” were drawers with three or four high wax dolls dressed in fabric clothes, until the crafts joined a new procedure: the reproduction of mold on drywall. The Fallas creation has evolved to the present, where the greatest monuments are made of expanded polystyrene (poliexpán).  So the Falla art has generated larger monuments shots that graze the 30 meters high.
These monuments are burnt in the street at midnight on 19 to 20 March (the day of San José) in towns throughout the Valencia region (mainly in the city of Valencia). The act in which the fault is called “la cremá” (the burning).