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==''Falles'' and ''ninots''==
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
Cuba2012.jpg|Falla Cuba 2012 (2nd prize)
Maeztu Lleons 2015 12.jpg|''Ninots'' representing [[Barack Obama]] and [[Vladimir Putin]] (parodying ''[[The Nutcracker]]'') in 2015
Falla_del_Ayuntamiento_Valencia_2019_(3).jpg|Fallas 2019 from Valencia
</gallery>
Formerly, much time would be spent by the ''casal faller'' preparing the ''ninots'' ([[Valencian language|Valencian]] name for puppets or dolls).<ref name="ArweckKeenan2006">{{cite book|author=Xavier Costa|editor1=Elisabeth Arweck|editor2=William J. F. Keenan|title=Materializing Religion: Expression, Performance and Ritual|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BXt2s8XhoBcC&pg=PA65|year=2006|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-5094-2|pages=64–65|chapter=Festivity and the Sacred: The Symbolic Universe in the Festival of the 'Fallas' of Saint Joseph}}</ref> Traditionally during the four days leading up to 19 March, each group takes its ''ninot'' out for a grand parade, and then mounts it, each on its own elaborate [[firecracker]]-filled [[Paperboard|cardboard]] and [[paper-mâché]] artistic monument, in a street of the given neighbourhood. This whole assembly is a ''[[Falla monument|falla]]''. Today the grand parade is held much earlier and forms the official commencement of the construction work.

The ''ninots'' and their ''falles'' are constructed according to an agreed-upon theme that has traditionally been a satirical jab at whatever draws the attention of the ''fallers'' (the registered participants of the ''casals'').<ref name="ArweckKeenan2006" /> In modern times, the two-week-long festival has spawned a substantial local industry, to the point that an entire suburban area has been designated the ''Ciutat fallera'' (Falles City). Here, crews of artists and artisans, sculptors, painters, and other craftsmen, all spend months producing elaborate constructions of paper and wax, wood and [[polystyrene|polystyrene foam]] tableaux towering up to five stories, composed of fanciful figures, often caricatures, in provocative poses arranged in a gravity-defying manner.<ref name="El País2014">{{cite news|title=El atractivo turístico de la Ciutat Fallera|url=http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2013/03/05/valencia/1362506634_651316.html|work=El País|issue=València|publisher=Ediciones El País, S.L.|date=5 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031180703/http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2013/03/05/valencia/1362506634_651316.html|archive-date=October 31, 2015|language=es}}</ref> Each of them is produced under the direction of one of the many individual neighbourhood ''casals fallers'' who vie with each other to attract the best artists, and then to create the most outrageous allegorical monument to their target. There are about 750 of these neighbourhood associations in Valencia,<ref name="ArweckKeenan2006" /> with over 200,000 members, or a quarter of the city's population.<ref name="Richards2013">{{cite book|author=Greg Richards|editor=Greg Richards|title=Cultural Tourism: Global and Local Perspectives|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ZfhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA271|date=7 March 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-79234-2|page=271|chapter=The Festivalization of Society or the Socialization of Festivals?}}</ref>

Since 1934 each of the fallas sends one of their figures to a competition, the ''Exposició del Ninot''. This competition, which is won by popular vote, determines which of the ninots will be spared from burning (''ninot indultat''). This ninot will go on to be placed in the {{interlanguage link|Museo Fallero|es}}.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-04-12 |title=Historia del ninot indultat |url=https://www.distritofallas.com/historia/ninots-indultats/historia-del-ninot-indultat/ |access-date=2026-02-26 |website=Distrito Fallas |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=L'indult del foc: catàleg raonat de la col·lecció de ninots indultats del Museu Faller |date=2002 |publisher=Ajuntament de València, Delegació de Festes |isbn=978-84-8484-038-1 |editor-last=Museu Faller |location=Valencia |editor-last2=Hernàndez i Martí |editor-first2=Gil-Manuel}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite conference |last=Subiela |first=Antoni Colomina |date=2019 |title=Salvados del fuego. La conservación de los ninots de cartón-piedra de las fallas de Valencia |trans-title=Saved from the Fire: The conservation of paper mache ninots in the Fallas of Valencia |url=https://libreria.cultura.gob.es/libro/actas-ii-jornadas-de-creaciones-en-papel-tipologias-y-conservacion_3532/ |conference=Jornadas de Creaciones en Papel |volume=2 |pages=138-149 |via=[[Ministry of Culture (Spain)|Ministerio de la Cultura]]}}
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During Fallas, many people wear their ''casal faller'' dress of regional and historical costumes from different eras of València's history. The ''[[dulzaina|dolçaina]]'' (an [[oboe]]-like reed instrument) and ''[[drum|tabalet]]'' (a kind of Valencian drum) are frequently heard,<ref name="Villarroya1992">{{cite book|author=Antonio Ariño Villarroya|title=La ciudad ritual: la fiesta de las Fallas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aUzLVON2UdMC&pg=PA13|date=1 January 1992|publisher=Anthropos Editorial|isbn=978-84-7658-368-5|page=60}}</ref> as most of the different casals fallers have their own traditional bands.

Although the ''Falles'' is a very traditional event and many participants dress in medieval clothing, the ''ninots'' for 2005 included such modern characters as [[Shrek (character)|Shrek]] and [[George W. Bush]], and the 2012 ''Falles'' included characters like [[Barack Obama]] and [[Lady Gaga]]. A literary contest organised annually since 1903 by the [[Lo Rat Penat]] cultural association recognises the work of local poets who write satirical verses in Valencian that explain these characters. The faller verses are collected in booklets (''llibrets'') and distributed to participants.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.fallas.com/index.php/es/main-noticias-es-articulo/main-noticias-organizacion-es/1203-concurso-de-llibrets-de-lo-rat-penat |title=Concurso de llibrets de Falla |trans-title=Falla Booklets Contest |language=Spanish |work=[[Junta Central Fallera]] |date=1 March 2016 |access-date=2 September 2023 |archive-date=11 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211143425/https://www.fallas.com/index.php/es/main-noticias-es-articulo/main-noticias-organizacion-es/1203-concurso-de-llibrets-de-lo-rat-penat |url-status=dead }}</ref>