Summer solstice fire festivals in the Pyrenees

Description (ECB)

The summer solstice fire festivals were inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2015. They are traditional and popular festivities widely celebrated in Andorra each year. The design reproduces a human figure, named ‘fallaire’, wearing a traditional cape and tracing a circle of fire with the ‘falla’. This is the main element of the festival and consists of tree barks that, once lit, they are energetically whirled around creating large circles of fire. The graphic composition of lines in the background of the design represents the summer solstice together with the name of the issuing country ‘ANDORRA’ and the year ‘2023’. The coin’s outer ring bears the 12 stars of the European flag.

Source: European Central Bank, €2 commemorative coin pages. Texts quoted as published. ECB 2023

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