Working backwards: Castells

This is going to be a fairly graphic-based entry, because really, words aren't necessary. I'll start by laying the groundwork a bit, but then I'll turn loose the visuals. So last Tuesday, June 24th, was Día de San Juan, or Día de Sant Joan in Catalán, or St. John's Day in English. Somehow, they've also managed to correlate this with Midsummer Night (aka the summer solstice, which should be June 21st), so that starting late in the evening June 23rd there is basically the biggest party of the year. But the title of this entry is "Working backwards," so I'm going to start with June 24th first, in the evening. Later I'll get back to June 24th day, then June 23rd, then my trip to Holland, and then eventually catch up on my Andalucia trip. It's been a busy few weeks, phew!

So one thing Catalonia is famous for, among other things, castells, which literally means "castles" in Catalán. When people refer to the castells, though, what they're really referring to are human towers, an event which is exactly what it sounds like, people standing on top of each other to make towers, usually something like 6-7 people high. I haven't quite been able to figure out the whole origin, but as far as I can tell it started as a dance and it might have something to do with agricultural rituals. But anyway, so people stand on top of other people, and this is what they did in the Plaça de la Font, Tarragona's main square, on Tuesday night.

Here's how it goes:
1. People wrap themselves really tightly in these cloths to provide back support, just like weightlifting belts. As you'll later see they also serve as steps.

2. The bottom layer is a giant mob of concentric people-circles, something like 30 or more people.

3. People start climbing up...

4. Add some more people, who basically scale the existing layers like palm trees...

5. Finally, the finishing touch is a little kid about 4 or 5 years old that climbs up (called the enxaneta), quickly blows a kiss to the crowd, then immediately slides back down, after which the tower dismantles.

And here's some video action, one of people going up, one coming down:

Yeah....COOOOLL!