Renewal and Fire: Experiencing the Fallas in Valencia

Sometimes, life puts you at the right time in the right place.

Going to Valencia to heal from a tough breakup, I arrived on the very first day of the Fallas — and it felt like it was meant to be.

The Fallas is a tradition that celebrates the arrival of spring — a 19-day festival to help transition toward a brighter tomorrow. Firecrackers, fireworks, Mascletà, Ninots, music — they shape the festival, growing in intensity until the final night, the Nit de foc. It’s a fascinating experience to live, in such a short period of time. The rise, the enjoyment, and the burn.

As a metaphor for life itself, this celebration makes you experience every stage intensely — until you are ready to let go. It was the perfect healing process. My emotions and my environment were in tune.

As I was doing my best to keep myself standing despite the disillusion and the pain, the intensity of the city became — surprisingly — the best treatment. It felt like the environment, the people, were taking care of me without even asking. Kindness was everywhere. People were there to celebrate, to enjoy the moment. The blend of humanity, hopes, fears, and excitement draws you into a collective emotion that carries you through the entire Fallas.

Individuality as unity.

What else could I have asked for? I was there, feeling sad and empty, after ending a relationship I still believed in. The disappointment was hard to swallow — not only because another love story had failed, but because I was tired of offering love and receiving silence and rejection. It happens so often, in all kinds of relationships. To me, it feels like everybody is looking for love, and yet, everybody is scared of it.

Yes, it hurts to be vulnerable — and I was at the point where I no longer believed I could offer it anymore, even to myself. The Fallas cheered me up in ways I could not have expected. Following the flow of the celebration, I was healing myself — step by step, firework by firework.

Each day was a small rebirth.

I wasn’t expecting the change that was quietly happening. At the dawn of my thirty-first year, I was letting go of the child in me, stepping fully into the woman I was becoming. I could feel this change in so many ways.

My craving for spontaneous travels turned into a deeper need for a home base. My gaze toward men shifted; I could now clearly distinguish a boy from a man — sometimes even before he could. I started to stand up for myself in ways I never thought I could. No more compromising who I am, unless what’s in front of me truly worth it.

My whole vision of self-love, relationships, fulfillment, became sharper and clearer. It didn’t happen in a two-week window. But the Fallas opened my eyes to the journey I had been on for years. The pain, the losses, the small victories, the joys — all of it had been preparing me for the woman version of myself.

And you know what’s the most beautiful part? As a child, as a teenager, as a young woman, I used to admire the person I am now becoming.

Nothing is completely achieved yet, and that’s fine.

But the path has been lit. And it’s up to me now to walk it.

And you, what was your last fire — the one that burned you so you could be reborn?