Las Fallas

Valencia welcomes spring with the Fallas festival which focuses around ninots. Ninots are tiny figures (compared to the ginormous Fallas) which are life-like statues that are fashioned out of combustible materials such as wood, cardboard and plaster. These ninots are usually satirical renditions of political and other controversial figures from the Spanish life.
The grand celebrations of Las Fallas terminate on the 19th of March at midnight when the ninots are ignited and destroyed. Every year some of them survive the flames from a popular election called "Ninot indultat" (Pardoned Ninot).

Here are some of the ninots taken from various flickr photostreams

Image credit: xixarel1

Image Credit: Piper

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Image credit: bostonian

Image Credit : rachk2

Image credit : Senyor F

Image credit : Piper

image credit : rach2k

image credit : rach2k

image credit : laura

image credit : Pyronious