The cremà is the act of burning the monuments that have stood in the street during the fiestas: the fallas in Valencia, on the night of San José, and the hogueras in Alicante, on the night of San Juan. The plantà is the opposite moment, when those monuments are set up. The whole fiesta fits between the two: the monument is born in the plantà and dies in the cremà.
What the cremà is
Cremà is the colloquial form of cremada, “burning”. The Diccionari normatiu valencià defines it as the festive act of burning the falla or foguera on St Joseph’s or St John’s night, and the Generalitat’s Hogueras glossary puts it even more briefly: “l’acte de la crema de la foguera”. The monuments are made to burn: the decree that protects the Hogueras points out that materials such as expanded polystyrene help them burn.
Cremà at the Fallas of Valencia
On the night of 19 March the whole city goes up in flames. Visit València explains that it is each committee’s falleras mayores (its fiesta queens) who light the fuse. First the children’s fallas are burned, then all the big ones and, at the end, the winning falla of the Special Section and the one in Plaza del Ayuntamiento, which is the last. UNESCO inscribed the Fallas in 2016 on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Cremà at the Hogueras of Alicante
In Alicante it is the night of 24 June. At midnight a great palmera (a huge palm-shaped burst of fireworks) is fired from the top of Santa Bárbara castle, on Mount Benacantil, and can be seen all over the city. It is the signal: the official hogueras, every adult and children’s monument and the barracas’ entrance arches start to burn. As they burn, the fire brigade hoses down the onlookers, to ease the summer heat and that of the flames: that is the banyà, which the Generalitat describes as very popular among young people.
And the plantà
Plantà is the colloquial form of plantada, the act of setting up the fallas and the fogueres.
| Fallas of Valencia | Hogueras of Alicante | |
|---|---|---|
| Children’s plantà | Around 15 March | Night of 19 June |
| Plantà of the big monuments | Night of 15 to 16 March | Night of 20 June |
| Cremà | Night of 19 March, San José | Midnight of 24 June, San Juan |
Between the plantà and the cremà, the monuments stay in the street so that they can be visited. It is also when the mascletà goes off every day: in Valencia in Plaza del Ayuntamiento and in Alicante in Plaza de los Luceros.
For events and catering
The plantà and the cremà are a committee’s two busiest moments: setting up at night, dinner at odd hours and home in the small hours. Whoever feeds them has to work to the programme’s timetable, not a restaurant’s. In Alicante, Xepep prepares lunches and dinners for Hogueras and barracas, with kitchen and bar in the marquee, and in general for local fiestas.
Related terms
The monument in Alicante is the foguera; in Valencia, the falla, whose committee meets in a casal faller. Before the cremà, the mascletà goes off every day, and in Alicante many committees spend the night at their barraca.
For more vocabulary from the table and the fiesta, explore Falla and Ninot.