Carlos Bazarra | Valencia (EFE) for the good weather they have had to spend day and night on the street.
The ritual of the cremà has reduced to ashes, in the face of the tears and smiles of hundreds of children from each neighborhood of the city, the small monuments that have captured their favorite TV and video game characters, their school, social or technological day to day. , their “top” animals -real or imaginary-, their stories and dreams, their family nostalgia and, ultimately, their carefree experiences where the ninots always play, jump and laugh.
Once again with pleasant springtime temperatures, under slightly cloudy skies and a gentle breeze -nothing to do with last year’s Fallas, dominated by rain, wind and cold-, the little ones have seen, at eight o’clock in the afternoon, how their “minifallas” began to burn after the obligatory fireworks that have ignited the older children’s falleras of each festive commission.
The emotion of the falleras and children’s fallas
His emotion, barely contained, during the ritual of the purifying fire that announces spring has also caused a kind of audible truce: during the minutes in which these small sculptures burn, fewer firecrackers are thrown, whose noise has been the “white noise” of the city during the last week.
The set of dolls saved this year from the fire by popular vote is “Easter Day in the Albufera”, by the Almirante Cadarso-Conde Altea commission, a work by the artist Enric Ginestar that, as tradition dictates, will become part of the collection of Faller Museum of Valencia.
At 8:30 p.m., the cream of the children’s falla won this year in the Special section -the one that brings together the monuments with the highest budget-, that of the Convento Jerusalén-Matemático Marzal, which with a budget of 45,000 euros and work by José Gallego With the motto “Tri, three little failures in one”, he gave the public, with well differentiated colors (red, yellow and blue for the past, present and future), a range of characters, sports or adventures where the 3 reigns as “magic growth number”.
This year, the eleven children’s failures in the Special section have spent a total of almost 353,000 euros, a figure that rises to 2.1 million in total.
The children’s municipal fault
And at nine o’clock at night the turn of the children’s municipal falla has arrived, out of competition (its 30,210 euros are paid by the City Council) and work, once again, by the duo of fallero artists Ceballos and Sanabria, who have paid tribute to the dances and traditional dances of the Valencian Community.
Being located in the very center of the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, at the foot of the falla grande -this year, the immense wooden heart designed by Marina Puche and executed by Manolo García-, the children’s municipal falla is one of the most admired and photographed.
The older child fallera, Paula Nieto, has been accompanied by her entire court of honor and by the Councilor for Festive Culture and president of the Junta Central Fallera, Carlos Galiana, and has been in charge of lighting the fuse that has given way to the “cremà”, after which they have all burst into inconsolable sobs, to the sounds of the Valencian and Spanish hymns and in a crowded and dark square, to heighten the solemnity of the ritual.
Valencian children will go to bed in a few hours convinced that their elders will see to it that next year there will be another falla in each neighbourhood, because that is how they have learned how this party works since they were little. They already know what is said about the Ave Fénix and, above all, they are clear that they have to keep playing.