Last week in Valencia, I finally was able to experience the big kahuna of Spanish holidays. Las Fallas, which pretty much consumes the entire first half of March, begins on the first of the month. Every day at 2 p.m. las mascletas, which are basically just an extremely loud boisterous form of fireworks, are lit off in the city center of Valencia, and people will completely fill the surrounding area every afternoon to get a peek at the ground-shaking performance.

Then the Fallas festival is officially kicked off on the 15th in coordination with the feast of St. Joseph. The festival lasts for a total of four days, and during this time the everyday commonalities of the city are completely out of whack. All schools and regular businesses are shut down, while conveniently all over the city there are 24-hour churro or kebab shops open so that during Fallas no one can go to bed feeling empty. Here's an actual picture of me before going to bed every night during Fallas:

The main attraction during Las Fallas is the giant intricate sculptures set up all throughout the city.

These fantastic works of art are brought to life all throughout Valencia where after turning any corner you can find a new one. To the average foreigner these sculptures would seem like enough to satisfy the needs of the party-goers, but what the Spaniards do that makes Las Fallas especially exciting is that on the last day they burn everything to the ground. To appease a drunkards carnal desire to, "Burn Stuff" everyone gathers around different sculptures and cheers as the beautiful artwork burns to the ground.

It really is true that some people just want to watch the world burn, but what makes the festival so exciting is not the sculpture bonfires or the scheduled fireworks instead it is the unexpected fireworks... Las Fallas is the only place in the world where a small child barely old enough to walk can play with explosives in the middle of a crowded street. It is also the only place where young people can shoot off ear-throbbing, deafening bombs right at your feet, and not even turn the heads of anyone nearby. The constant barrage of earth-shaking fireworks is certainly difficult to adjust to at first, but once you either get past the ear ache or accept deafness Las Fallas is a genuinely amazing experience. It was especially fun for me because I got to experience it with my cousin who came to visit who was pleasantly surprised to find out that he had entered a war zone, a peaceful war zone, but battlefield nonetheless.