¡Quémalo!

Or, in English, "burn it!"

This was the chant of the crowd around 1 am, as we waited in suffocating closeness, eyes on the prize, or in this case, the huge 3-4 story-tall sculpture that would soon be burned to the ground.

This, is Las Fallas.

The day started at noon, as we piled onto a bus and headed towards

 the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia. Four hours later, we disembarked into a place that can best be described as Disneyland-meets-war zone. The air was filled with smoke and the resounding 'boom' of fire crackers. Streets were blocked off, each intersection filled with one of the huge sculptures. The sculptures, which Valencian artists take all year to build, are filled with political and social satire; for instance, we saw one with America represented as a drunk bald eagle sitting on top of an egg which was the world, and another with Obama knocking George Bush out in a boxing ring.

After walking through the streets for a while, we sat down on a curb with thousands of other people to watch a parade. First came women in elegant 'vestidos,' followed by dancers and a brass band. Then came the fire throwers, i.e. people with tridents that shot out a continuous stream of sparks... pyromaniacs, all of them. It lasted over an hour, and was quite the spectacle. 

After the parade ended, we continued to walk the crowded streets. We watched a group of women doing traditional African dance to the accompaniment of drummers, ate Valencian paella (traditional rice+meat dish of the region) from a street vendor, and watched a mini-Falla (a small version of the big-burnings, done earlier in the night for the kids).

Around midnight, we headed towards one of the biggest intersections to watch the burning of one of the sculptures. First there was an elaborate fireworks show, literally right above or heads (I still do not understand how these things are legal..), which was beautiful. Then a string of firecrackers went off, leading all the way to the head of the statue, lighting it on fire. The thing immediately went up in flames, everyone was cheering and screaming, I was so close I could feel the heat on my face. Bomberos, or fire fighters, began hosing it down right away but to no avail... it burned for minutes, and for a while I was certain that the buildings surrounding it (we were literally in the middle of a city intersection, surrounded on all sides by apartment buildings) would go up in flames too. 

¡Qué guay!, no?

All in all, the coolest cultural experience of Spain thus far. ¡Viva las fallas!