The Fallas!

In mid-March the Spanish city of Valencia, south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean, celebrates the coming of spring with The Fallas: a festival announcing the coming of Spring with fire, firecrackers, and gun powder.

Highlights:
The massive virgen, protector of the city, and her dress of carnations.
The daily 2pm firecracker noise 'show' that lasts 5-10 minutes. Each day a different group of people set up the firecrackers to have different rhythms and booms, echoes and whistles, hoping to win the prize for best firecracker display and converting the Main Square into a smoky maze of people. (The picture was taken on a partly-sunny day!)
The huge satirical works of art that paid groups of artists work on throughout the entire year.
The last day of the fallas, the 19th of March (Day of Saint Joseph, a carpenter) when all the work that went into creating the massive wooden figures (caricaturing events and people and general society), literally go up in flames and are burned to ashes to mark a literal and figurative new beginning.
Best of all was seeing Emily, who I had not seen since December, and being together again to celebrate, for a second time in a row, the coming of Spring and making a new-beginning wish upon the golden flames.