Las Fallas

As I mentioned in my last post, I made an effigy of winter to burn on March 19, the feast of St. Joseph which is called Las Fallas in Valencia. I took pictures of the spirit before, since there would be no chance after.
 

I left the newspaper base in its natural state. Crumpled newspaper seemed to evoke winter in New York. This spirit was all about the decay of winter.

In the traditional celebration the Fallas are paraded around town before they are burned. They are wildly elaborate. Mine was going straight onto the fire, so I kept the details simple.

My sister and her husband came over to watch. They are photographers too, we had lots of pictures.

 photo by Kip peticolas

The night was windy and cold, with a supermoon in the sky.

The spirit caught on fire easily.

The wind blew the spirit off the flames.

photo by kip peticolas

The beloved placed it back on the flames with his bare hands.

photo by Kip Peticolas

 Then the spirit seemed to settle into the flames and let the spring take over.

photo by Kip Peticolas

photo by Richard Megna

photo by Richard Megna

photo by Kip Peticolas

At the end, the young son poked at the blaze to make sure that winter was really gone. 

Signs of Spring

They were selling "shamrocks" at the farmer's market in honor of St. Patrick's day. I brought some home to the delight of the kitties. It is possible to see the tooth marks on some of the leaves. Now there is nothing left but stems and few clovers.
 

 Plants are sending out green shoots at the nearby community garden.

I can't wait to see everything blossom.
 

I am making a figure to represent winter which I plan to burn this weekend in celebration of the equinox.
 

There is a festival in Valencia, Spain called Las Fallas during which people display huge paper mache figures that are burned at the end of the festival. It is supposed to be in honor of St. Joseph, but its origins were pagan. The figures in the Spanish version are usually satirical, and very detailed. Mine is simpler, although I am planning on adding some hair and wintry draperies, but it won't be poking fun at anything. I used flour for the paper mache paste so it should smell really good while it is burning.