Sunday 16 June 2013

Sitges – The procession of the Giants

As part of the Flower Carpet Festival there was a ‘Procession de Gegantes’ scheduled amongst the events. We have gathered that ‘gegantes’ probably means ‘giants’ and we’ve never seen a giant procession before so after soaking up the sun on the beach we went to find these giants.

I spotted them inside a building standing next to each other waiting for their turn. I stuck my camera through the bars and took some photos of them.



A few minutes before six the whole square was boiling with anticipation. Many people tried to stand on top of something and children were lifted up on shoulders so they could see better. Castellers gathered together and many of them were holding musical instruments. The tension was palpable and everybody was looking in the direction of the giants.


At 6 finally somebody opened the gate and the castellers rushed in to get the giants. After a few minutes finally the first one emerged. One casteller stood under it and others stayed around it to keep the road clear around them and to offer any help needed. Before the giants marched the musicians playing Catalan music.







When the whole procession finally started we realised that we were on the wrong side of the square so we rushed through the narrow streets to get back to the other side. We really didn’t need to as from time to time the giants stopped for a little dance and to give the castellers who carried them a break. There was space for everybody to follow.
















Paul even took a video of the giants’ dance.


It was great fun and I’m looking forward to see some other giants at other Spanish festivals later in the year. 

No comments:

Post a Comment