Kicking off Fallas... and you thought the 4th of July was cool!

Hear ye hear ye, the time has come to commence the grand festival of Fallas.... as the Fallaera mayor calls it: "the best fiesta in the world"

This is all Valencia talks about, there is a lot of hype and expectations are high; I hope Valencia can bring it. TOMA!

Fallas, Im still not too sure how to explain it. I still learn something new everyday, but I'll explain what I know thus far.
1) Fallas starts "March 1st" (but the kick-off was today, probably because today is Sunday) and it will end March 19th, the day of Patron Saint Joseph (San Josep)
2)Each community within Valencia has a Casal Faller, each casal faller builds a Falla and has a Fallera Mayor
3) What is a Falla? According to wikipedia: crews of artists and artisans, sculptors, painters, and many others all spend months producing elaborate constructions, richly absurd paper and wax, wood and styrofoam tableaux towering up to five stories, composed of fanciful figures in outrageous poses arranged in gravity-defying architecture

3) People prepare all year, raising money to build these fallas. They host dinners and activities to raise money. And the person/child who raises the MOST money, gets to be the Fallera Mayor of their casal.
4)All the kids under the age of 18 or 17 get dressed up in some intense Valencian garb (Falleras/Falleros)  The girls look like Marie Antoinette and the boys, not as fancy.  All of the Fallera Mayores from each Casal compete to become the official Fallera Mayor, I imagine its something like "Miss America", except "Miss Valencia" with no swimsuit competition

5) Every day at 2pm, in the main plaza, fireworks go off and it may sound like the city is at war
6) People will light fireworks at all times of the day, and random parades will be held. So no siestas allowed
7) In the Plaza de la Virgen, an offering of paper flowers is made to the Virgen, and it becomes a huge float
8) On march 19th,  all the Fallas are brought to the main square, and at midnight, they are all burned and there is even more fireworks and loud bangs
9) People eat buñelos. These are basically doughnut holes filled with either cream, chocolate, pumpkin, or banana

I will keep updating you on whatever else I find out about fallas within the next few weeks! Until then, here are some videos from today's first mesclata! sorry for the bad quality, and my camera does not due the noise justice!

PS while I was watching this today, my i could feel every bone in my body vibrating! And all I could think about was dogs! My ferocious doberman used to hide in the bathroom on the 4th of july... how do Valencian dogs cope? Are they just as excited as their masters about this painful noise that lasts weeks???