While children all around the U.S. are dressing up for Halloween, the people of Girona are putting on stilts and dressing up as giants to celebrate their annual festival. For ten days, the streets are full of people roasted chesnusts, music celebrations and traditional performances. During Les Fires (The Fires), the Catalonian people celebrate in the most midevil ways they know how: giants, towers and fires.
The gegants (giant sculpture pronounced ji-gant) of Girona are giant paper mache figures worn by people on stilts. I first saw them about 20 feet outside of my house while I was walking home from work. I thought to myself, "why is this just standing in the street?". Turns out, they've been a tradition in Spain for about 600 years. For every major celebration, the villagers bring out their gegants and dance to traditional flutes.
It turns out that Catalans love to celebrate with tall things. Castells are human towers that can reach up to about 35 feet tall (that's about as tall as the tallest point in Flynn). Entire families will join Castell teams and compete against each other for the title of best Castell. The people on top of the towers are usually little kids that are even younger than you guys!
