The Las Fallas Festival takes place on 19th March in

Valencia to celebrate Saint Joseph. Las Fallas

means the torches. Las Fallas is the night when
there is the deliberate destruction of over 700
papier-mâché statues which have been created
over the past year. Each statue varies between six
and ten metres tall. At ten o'clock on the night of the
19th people set the sculptures on fire. The evening
is not over until the bonfires have burnt themselves
out. On the 15th March, the sculptures are judged.
The best sculpture will be kept until next year.

There are two displays of fireworks. The first is in

the afternoon, is to make as much noise as
possible. A long succession of over-lapping
explosions gradually builds. This takes place near
the railway station. The second display, in the
evening, is far more traditional. This takes place
along the dry river bed which snakes through the
centre of the city. This often begins at midnight.

No one is quite certain how this ceremony came

into being. The earliest written references date back
to only the 18th Century, but many believe the
festival originated much earlier than this.