Denia is located in the community of Valencia, whose patron saint is San José. In a mix of Catholicism, Iberian tradition, Valencian humor, and Spanish fiesta, the 18th and 19th of March the Valencian population celebrates the day of San José (Saint Joseph) with the Festival of Fallas.
The Fallas are sculptures, often quite large, that artists each year design and create with a social critique in mind and poems to help communicate the satire, written in Valenciano. Several days before the actual festival the fireworks begin. Children throw small explosives and at seven in the morning one can expect be awakened by a local noise making fest. As the Fallas (the actual sculptures) are placed in various locales throughout the city the spirit of Fallas grows stronger. The Falleros and Falleras can be seen in their outfits and the fireworks (or explosive noisemakers) become more frequent, but this is a poor sample of the Mascleta, Ofrenda, and Crema to come.
The Mascleta is the culmination of fireworks, of noise. When a person from the United States thinks fireworks, s/he tends to think of a brilliant show of lights in the summer sky: the fourth of July. In terms of the ample amount of explosives necessary for this event, the two (la Mascleta of Fallas and the 4th of July) might be on par, but the focus is entirely different. The Mascleta is all about noise. The 4th of July Americans ooo and ahh over the colors, assuming the fire hazard is low enough to permit the showing. Oooing and ahhing at the Mascleta would be quite silly—nobody will hear the pathetic attempt at appreciation. Nobody hears very well the cheering afterward either. But everyone feels (yes, literally feels) the trembling of the sound through not only the eardrums but the asphalt, the entire body.
La Ofrenda is the Catholic component of this festival. The Falleros and Falleras make offering to the Virgin, flowers, in a long procession of participants dressed in the traditional ropa fallera. The dresses are beautiful, hand embroidered, colorful . . . and I’m going to stop before I embarrass myself with my lack of correct clothing related vocabulary. The women wear rich necklaces, earrings, and hair décor that also functions to hold the Iberian styled hair (that is to say, in the style of La Dama de Elche—put that in Google and there should be pictures of the ancient sculpture).
La crema is the burning. The beautiful, awful, interesting, satirical art, the Fallas, are burned with fireworks, fire, fireworks, and flame. It is quite exciting. And it takes all of the senses: smell the fireworks, hear the explosives, taste horchata and churros, feel the ground tremble, and see—see the Fallas, the Falleros, the flames, the fun.
