IN PHOTOS | Spain's Las Fallas festival: A celebration of art and satire with fireworks, puppets, bonfires

Every year the city of Valencia celebrates the ancient 'Las Fallas' fiesta, a noisy week that is full of fireworks and processions in honor of Saint Joseph, the patron saint of carpentry, that ends in the midnight of March 19, burning many characters and large papier mache satirical figures (ninots) displayed around the streets of the city. | AP Photo

Every year the city of Valencia celebrates the ancient 'Las Fallas' fiesta, a noisy week that is full of fireworks and processions in honor of Saint Joseph, the patron saint of carpentry, that ends in the midnight of March 19, burning many characters and  

Ninots are larger-than-life “figurines made of Styrofoam, cardboard, wood, papier-mâché and plaster.” Fallas refers to both the festival and the figurines being burnt. The ninots (which costs more than 100,000 dollars and takes around a year to make) are paraded through the city before they are set on fire in a huge blaze underneath a giant fireworks display at midnight. | AP Photo

Every March, from 15th to 20th, Valencia welcomes Spring with the Fallas festival, which represents tradition, satire, art and patriotism. Ring out the old and ring in the new, that is the spirit of the festival. The Ninot figures depict scenes or people in the news and poke fun at them, including at Spanish politicians and celebrities. | AP Photo

What is the origin of the festival? According to VisitValencia, just before spring, in the city streets, the guilds stopped working at night and burned in front of each workshop a rustic parot (a wooden device used for lighting). To feed the fire, these artisans accumulated old strips and chips of wood together with old junk collected from the neighbourhood. Afterwards, the parot would be brought to life with rags giving it a human form, with an old hat as the head, and so the Ninot figure was born. They were kept on a pedestal for everybody to see. | AP Photo

One of the many unique traditions of the Fallas festival is that of the “ninot indultat” (pardoned ninot). An exhibition of the best figures is kept with the general public as the jury, and these are saved from being burnt. All the pardoned ninots are then exhibited in the Fallas Museum in Valencia. | AP Photo

Las Fallas was recently included in the UNESCO listing of ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity'. | AP Photo

As an avid Fallas-goer remarked, it resembles a cross between Disneyland, the Fourth of July, and the end of the world. Fireworks, fiestas, giant puppets, bonfires and more! | AP Photo