Dad’s Day and Las Fallas!

[Conchita]

[color=darkblue]Father’s Day is celebrated in Spain on St. Joseph’s Day (March 19th), as in many other catholic countries, since the good old carpenter was Jesus’ father on earth – though not biological, as we are told. As it falls on a Sunday this year, Monday is a public holiday in most of the country.

This celebration coincides with another major annual event: Las Fallas, in Valencia. This fire festival is a kind of satirical parade of huge, grotesquely funny figures made of papier mach?, wood and wax, called ‘ninots’, which are built in the streets and then set on fire (this is the best part!) at the stroke of midnight, after streetlights have been turned off. It’s said to be great fun, even for non-pyromaniacs. The Mediterranean city more than doubles its population during this colourful f?te.

The event is as popular as the (crazy?) bull running San Fermin festival around July 7th in Pamplona. In fact, the 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises” by Hemingway has contributed to its popularity all over the world.

[Jamie_K]

@Conchita

[color=darkblue]Father’s Day is celebrated in Spain on St. Joseph’s Day (June 19th), as in many other Catholic countries, since the good old carpenter was Jesus’ father on earth – though not biological, as we are told. As it falls on a Sunday this year, Monday is a public holiday in most of the country.

In English we say Joseph was Jesus’s foster father.

That festival sounds like it’s really a riot (i.e., huge, raucous fun). The thing I miss about Europe is those traditional out-of-control festivals. In one part of the German-speaking world, they have a whole festival just devoted to making bad music! Our holidays are boring compared to yours.

What is the historical origin of this pyromaniac festival?

[Conchita]

You wouldn’t find me in a bad music festival: we hear enough bad music as it is!

What is the historical origin of this pyromaniac festival?

No one knows for sure, but there seem to be several versions on the origins of Las Fallas. I found this in CyberSp@in:

On the origin of the Valencian Fallas there are various theories which have tried to place this popular festival in time. This is not a simple matter as there is hardly any documentary evidence. The closest theories to reality, however, are: Vicente Salvador’s theory, that of Sol and the theory of the “Ninot” in the middle of Lent. The first two agree that the celebration of the Fallas began in the Middle Ages. Vicente Salvador considers that the origin of the Fallas could have happened at the time of the medieval guilds. On the night of St. Joseph the carpenters’ guild used to light a bonfire in honor of their saint. In it, they burnt the standing pole on which they had kept their lamp during the winter - the estai - and the sweepings from the workshop. With the passage of time, however, matting and various old pieces of junk were added. The custom of burning an effigy in the blaze is somewhat subsequent. The feuds between the different workshops provoked the creation of grotesque figures which represented rivals, for the purpose of making everyone laugh at them. The effigies were thrown onto the fire together with the old pieces of junk.

The second theory, that of Sol, suggests that the actual tradition of lighting bonfires in honor of the saints arose from pagan customs which Christianity made its own, as it was too difficult to prohibit or condemn them, since they were already ceremonies of great popularity.

The theory of the Ninot in the middle of Lent, the third, relates that during the 17th century, effigies tied to a stick were burnt in the market place. It would seem that the first of these represented Mahomet. This act brought together a large number of townsfolk who celebrated the burning.

I hope this last theory won’t throw any more fuel to a certain unpleasant and ongoing fire of our own…

[Conchita]

I have just corrected the date for St. Joseph’s Day: it should read March 19th, i.e. today (I don’t know how I came to write June!). So, happy Father’s Day to all daddies out there, even if you don’t celebrate it today!

Also, Hemingway’s book, set after World War I, depicts Pamplona’s San Fermin bull-running festival, not the Fallas (my sentence was a bit confusing), as far as I know.