FAQs
FAQs
Here you can find quick answers to all of your questions. Linked, you’ll find the articles or the sections of the articles that can give you more detailed information.
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A Fallera Mayor de Valencia is a female member of a comisión fallera (Fallas committee) who is elected every year to represent all the falleros in the city.
The term fallera mayor is also used to indicate the representative of a single comisión fallera, of which there are 392 in Valencia.
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The Fallera Mayor is arguably the most important figure in the festival, she symbolises the event and the community as a whole.
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Every Fallas committee has their own fallera mayor. Then, every year, a Fallera Mayor and a Fallera Mayor Infantil are elected to represent all committees.
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A Fallera Mayor Infantil is a young Fallera Mayor. She represents all the children involved in Fallas.
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A Corte de Honor is a court of honour, a group of 12 falleras who have been selected to accompany the Fallera Mayor.
There is a Corte de Honor for adults and a Corte de Honor Infantil.
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A Fallera Mayor has a symbolic and representative role. She presides and gives speeches in almost all Fallas events, and often travels to other Spanish regions to represent falleros for the rest of the year.
She has no decisional or executive power in the Fallas festival events.
If you’d like to know more about her responsibilities, you can check the relevant section of our article.
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No, a new Fallera Mayor and Fallera Mayor Infantil are elected every year.
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Every year, a lengthy pageant-like selection officiated by a jury determines who is going to be Fallera Mayor of the year.
If you’d like to know more about the selection process and how the falleras are judged, you can read the relevant section of this article.
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No, but it has happened quite a few times that a past Fallera Mayor Infantil later became a Fallera Mayor.
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The candidates are proposed by each committee, but then a jury of Fallas-involved people get to select the Fallera Mayor.
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The Fallera Mayor wears a typical Valenciana hairdo and dress like all other falleras. What distinguishes her is the design of her silk gown, which only the Fallera Mayor can wear. She could also be wearing a Valencian flag sash, but that is not mandatory.
If you want to know more about the Fallera Mayor’s dress, you can check the relevant section of this article.
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There are a couple ways to recognise the Fallera Mayor, but they are not as evident as you might think.
During official functions the Fallera Mayor might be wearing a Valencian flag sash, but this is not assured.
If you are close enough, you could also recognise her by the design of her gown’s decorations, as only she wears that specific floral motif.
If you’d like to know more about this, you can check the relevant section of this article.
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As long as a woman has been a registered fallera with a Fallas committee for at least two years, technically yes.
Of course, there are specific requirements, but they are not too restrictive. If you’d like to know more about them you can check the relevant section of this article.
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The Fallera Mayor is nominated every year in early-mid October.
If you’d like to know more about the selection process, you can read the relevant section of this article.
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La Telefonada (The Phone Call), is the call that the newly elected Fallera Mayor will receive from the Mayor of Valencia to tell her that she has been chosen for the role. This phone call takes place in October, on a specific date that is determined year by year.
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