Fête des géants

Happy Easter to you all.

The tramontane blew all the clouds away this morning so I decided to nip out to Villefranche in the afternoon to get a blip of the géants (or gegans in Catalan.) Gegants are enormous painted papier-maché figures, sometimes 14 or 15 ft tall, with traditional clothing and a person inside who looks out through a panel in the front of the costume. Most towns in Catalonia have their own giants, often representing some important person in the history of the town. They usually appear in couples, often as king and queen, or some other important person and go out on special days, and dance in the streets with little "big-heads" or "cap-grossos". As usual it was a noisy and fun event with the usual drums, pipes, whistles and general brouhaha. The giants are heavy and the carriers are strong men who wind long cummerbunds around their waists to stiffen their backs in much the same way as a weightlifter. As the giants dance and cavort through the streets, it makes for a very dramatic and entertaining spectacle. I have posted some more photos here.