Las Fallas
March 15 · Level 10 · #33 of 2238
Las Fallas fills Valencia's streets with towering satirical sculptures, turning the city into an outdoor art show. Artists and craftspeople spend months building the elaborate displays, knowing that fire awaits most of them at the festival's end.
How it is celebrated: crowds watch parades, experience the thunderous daytime fireworks called mascletàs and take part in a floral offering to the Virgin Mary. The final burning, known as the cremà, brings the celebrations to their climax.
A few figures escape: public votes select pardoned ninots from the main and children's displays. They enter a museum instead of the flames.