Fallas 2009 - Ofrenda de las Flores (Offering of the Flowers)

Fallas is not just one big pyro-happy pagan spring festival... in true Catholic form the locals manage to mix in a little religon. For two straight days (beginning at 4 pm each day and continuing until well after midnight) everyone (literally) dresses up in their traditional outifits and parades through the city grouped by neighborhood.

The end result is a huge flower statue of the Madona in the beautiful Plaza de la Virgen.

Bridget, me & Carolyn - and the flowers!

For Isabella...maybe next year...?

Cooking with Carolyn...

Mmmm.... pikelets! (New Zealand pancakes...:-)

Morning tour of neighborhood Fallas sculptures

(click on pic to enlarge)
Again... there are over 800 exhibits, infantil (for children) and major (for big kids). Here are just a few...

Falla 2009 - Plantà

Sunday is the official day of Plantà, or building and installation of more than 700 fallas exhibits around the city - although in reality the effort begins days before. And forget driving around the city as once this begins almost every intersection is blocked by the neighborhood fallas.

Some are relatively small, for kids (infantiles) while some are as much as 6 or 7 stories high and can be quite, uh, "colorful" (risqué...?).

We (the chicas) were feeling adventuress so decided to kick off the week with brunch (coffee and pan) in Rusafa with all the kids (hearding cats?) and bombetas!

Zen and Serena looked especially cute, dressed for the day in their traditional outfits...
Isabella and Renee thought is was cool getting to be in a bar (minors are permitted in bars here which gives the entire city a much more family-friendly feel).
Harrison and Sebastian with fireworks... it may not be legal in Seattle but here it's the Valencian way. It's not at all unusual during Fallas to see grandma or grandpa letting off a few mid-afternoon fireworks with the grandkids!

Best friends....

(click on pic to enlarge)
We are not sure what triggered this but by the end of the first week Isabella and Renée decided, on their own, that they would hold hands whenever possible... the mind(s) of 2-year-olds!

BOR family pre-Fallas celebration

We did it... after a hotly (pun intended) contested Paelle contest...we gathered 'round our home-made Fallas sculpture and, in the name of tradition, we burned it to the ground!

Here it gets wired with fireworks, the traditional way to destroy a good fallas... And here, if you listen closely you will hear Isabella cheering ("Yea!") as our hard work goes up in flames... (yep, she was definitely born in Valencia...).

More pre-Fallas celebrations...

On Friday afternoon we ventured out to the Los Olivos Ingles school (another spanish school offering classes in both Spanish and English where many of the older cup kids attend) for their pre-fallas celebrations.

Serena looked particularily lovely in her traditional outfit, also made by hand last year by her mom, Sylvana.After a performance of tradional music and dance we were invited down to the lower playground where the student-made falla was burned to the ground...

while Zen and Isabella played quite happily with Zen's digger.