The Ninot Exhibition Valencia 2020 is already open to public. Hence, visitors can also vote for the ninots that will be saved from the Fallas fire. If you do not know exactly what we are talking about, our Spanish school El Rincón del Tándem explains all in this blog 🙂
Fallas 2020 is fast approaching. Although the official opening of the festival (Cridà) will take place on March 1, we can already participate in some events of the Fallas program. Among them, the Ninot Exhibition Valencia 2020.
To help our students of the Spanish course get to know the most interesting aspects of the Fallas of Valencia, we will take them to the Ninot Exhibition.
Furthermore, in this blog, we talk about the meaning and history of the festival to make them fully enjoy the visit.
To begin with, the Valencian word “ninot” means “doll, puppet.” The word refers to the cartoon-like puppets that make up the Fallas scenes.
Small in size, the ninots surround the central installation and are usually located at the base of the Fallas.
Each year, only two ninots, one from the big fallas category and the other one from the small fallas (fallas infantiles) are “pardoned” (ninot indultat).
That is, they will be saved from the fire during the cremà, the closing event of this festival.
The history of Ninot Indultat
Before turning into an official event of the Fallas program, those ninots that honoured distinguished or well-known people used to be saved from the fire.
For example, at the beginning of the 20th century, the bust of the German composer Wagner and the effigy of Jaime I were both pardoned.
Besides, in some cases, ninots were kept to be given to caricatured people.
Some ninots were also saved from the fire thanks to popular will, because they conquered the hearts of the people or because of they were highly appreciated.
However, only in 1934 the Ninot exhibition was officially included in the festival program.
That happened at the initiative of the artist Regino Mas. He was the one who proposed the “pardon of ninots” during a contest of ideas organized by the Valencia City Council in order to enrich the festival program with new initiatives.
Due to the success of this proposal, the first Exhibition of the Ninot indultat took place in 1934, the basement of the Central Market of Valencia.
On this occasion, the visitors voted to save the ninot entitled “Grandmother and granddaughter” by the artist Vicente Benedito. Nevertheless, many more were unofficially pardoned.
Finally, the small ninots (ninots infantiles) begun to be part of the exhibition in 1963.
The Ninot Exhibition
The Ninot Exhibition will be open till March 15. In the Arquería Room of the Prince Felipe Museum (City of Arts and Sciences) we will find more than 700 ninots provided by all the Fallas commissions in Valencia.
Besides visiting the exhibition, people can vote to save their favourite ninot.
The reading of the popular verdict and the proclamation of the best ninots will take place on March 14 (ninot indultat infantil) and March 15 (ninot indultat of the big fallas).
Finally, all the ninots will be collected by the commissions to be placed in their own fallas.
If you want to see again the lucky surviving ninots, we invite you to visit the Museo Fallero.
This museum is the perfect place to take an historical-cultural tour thought the Fallas of Valencia.
At the museum we find the collection of all the ninots that have been saved from 1934.
Furthermore, we can learn how the festival has been changing over the years through photographic and audio-visual files.
Finally, we remind you that the Ninot Exhibition Valencia 2020 is hosted in the Arquerías Room of the Prince Felipe Museum. Visiting hours are from Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and from Friday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Our Spanish school El Rincón del Tándem suggests you to visit the exhibition.
If you do, do not forget to vote for your favourite ninots to be saved from the fire and thus become part of the Fallas heritage of Valencia 😉
Finally, we remind you that in our school in Valencia you can learn Spanish in an interactive and practical way. Also, in Spanish classes you will learn about culture and traditions.
See you soon!
