Las Fallas is an annual festival celebrated in Valencia, Spain in March to welcome the spring season. The festival involves large puppets and sculptures called fallas that are built and later burned, fireworks displays that reach jet engine noise levels, and bonfires. It attracts over a million visitors annually and is recognized on UNESCO's cultural heritage list for its importance to Spanish culture and history.

2. Las Fallas
Las Fallas is an exciting and noisy
festival of fireworks, amazing giant
puppets and incredible bonfires. Las
Fallas is celebrated in order to
welcome the season of spring.
The festival takes
place in March every
year in the Spanish
city and region of
Valencia and it
attracts over a
million visitors from
all around the world.

3. Las Fallas
A firecracker show called una mascletà takes place every
afternoon – the noise can reach 120 decibels (roughly the same
volume as the noise a jet plane makes on take off)!

4. Las Fallas
The word falla comes from
the Latin word for ‘torch’. In fact,
Las Fallas isn’t just the name
of the festival – it also refers to
the fires that form part of the
festival and the scenes that are
built and later set on fire.
It’s such a famous festival that it’s
now included on the UNESCO
cultural heritage list. This means
that it has been recognised for its
cultural and historical importance
in Spain.
"03 - Las Fallas 15" by kaberon is marked with CC BY 2.0.

5. Las Fallas
The festival of Las Fallas
has been celebrated in the city
and region of Valencia for
hundreds of years.
Many people believe that the festival is based
on an old tradition. Carpenters would
celebrate the arrival of spring by burning
their leftover pieces of wood, called parots ,
along with the oil lamps that they used to
work at night during the winter.

6. Las Fallas
People started to put
rags and clothes on the
parots to make them
look like people. Over
time, these evolved
into what we see today
– enormous and
elaborate figures.
They are usually made up of a main figure or falla
surrounded by smaller figures called ninots , which is
the Valencian word for ‘puppets’.
"Las Fallas Valencia juggling" by keith ellwood is marked with CC BY 2.0.

7. Almost every barrio
(neighbourhood) in Valencia
will display at least one huge
falla surrounded by smaller
ninots. They will usually
have a different theme every
year and many are built to
make fun of Spanish and
international celebrities and
politicians.
Las Fallas
They can reach 20 metres in
height and are true works
of art – costing millions of
euros in some cases!
"Las Fallas Spain Valencia" by keith ellwood is marked with CC BY 2.0..

8. Las Fallas
There are fireworks, firecrackers, music and entertainment every
day during the festival, which ends with la Cremà
on 19th March. This is the day when all the neighbourhood
fallas are filled with fireworks and burnt – except for one that
has been judged to be the winner.
"white horse" by keith ellwood is marked with CC BY 2.0.