Catalanian Castells: People power, building from the ground up

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The Bull Fight! Picture the image. Its all about one man with sharp instruments taking on a disoriented animal, resulting in the satisfaction of the bloodthirsty crowd. In Spain, I have only seen the pretty disturbing spectacle on the TV and don´t really want to see it live. The bull seemed to die a pretty gruesome and slow death.

In Catalonia, bull fighting is pretty well now banned.

Castells! Picture the image. It´s all about collaborative participation of a team depending on each other for nothing more than the achievement of completing a feat of balance and strength.

Today the castelles team of Mataró celebrated their 15 years anniversary. A castell is a human tower built traditionally in festivals at many locations within Catalonia. They were declared by UNESCO to be amongst the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2010.

Starting in the 18th century, castell building has become very popular in most of Catalonia.

Teams all wear a distinctive coloured shirt with white pants and sash, which is the most important part of their outfit, since it supports the lower back and is used by other castellers in the team as a foothold or handhold when climbing up the tower. This tasselled piece of cloth ranges from 1.5 to 12 m, and usually is shorter for those higher up in the castell.

The arrangement of castellers can be into a multi-tiered structure and the highest has a height spanning of nine or ten people from ground up.

Today I saw one 8 tier tower collapse which was a pretty scary sight. Two ambulances stood by for the entire event for just such a possibility, but fortunately no-one was injured. A fatal accident occured on this very spot (the town square) in 2006, when a young casteller fell off the formation of a castell.

The motto of Castellers is "Força, equilibri, valor i seny" (Strength, balance, courage and reason).

Strength: A casteller is usually a stocky person. The first castellers were peasants that were accustomed to holding great weights and were under much physical exertion.
Balance: For supporting other above in the castell while relying on those below for support requires a strong sense of balance and trust.
Courage: The most important characteristic for castellers, especially for young children forming the highest levels of the castell.
Reason: Rehearsing and performing requires a great deal of planning and reasoning. Any error can cause the structure to fail and break apart.

Quite a sight to see and inspiring symbolisam in terms of thinking about the need for people to support each other and all play a role for the greater welfare. The top echelons were young children and it looked to be a great character building exercise for them (and the helmets that they are now required to wear seemed to be a good idea!).

I think I prefer the castell to the bull fight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castell

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Photos

Preparing the sash
Preparation is a very serious business. The sash is used for climbing upon (giving a foothold) as well as a good body brace for the foundation level guys

Starting off
At this point the music has not started. The early layers first have to 'feel right' before the director gives the go ahead. If anyone feels like they are not firm or not stable they say ´no' and it all dismantles and they start again.

Slowly building
One layer at a time the castelle begins to take shape

Serious stuff
This was the local Mataro team who for the first time did a nine layer Castelle. Here they are up to eight. The last three layers were younger people who have to wear helmets as a precaution.

Everyone happy
At the end of a successful (and in this case a new frontier accompliched) Castelle, there is much rejoicing

Traditional music
These guys play a special piece of music once the Castelle is proceeding in proper, up to the climax when the last layer successfully is in place.

Seconds before a fall
This Castelle collapsed just seconds after this shot. Everyone knows how to fall to avoid injury if possible. The tower fell inwards and down with everyone relaxing and letting go as it fell. No one was hurt on this occasion.

Comments

[Rigmor]

Catalanian Castells
I'm sure I prefer Catalanian Castells to bull fighting. Look out for Stephen Maturin while you're there. XX R

[Carol]

This is AUTHENTIC catalan stuff!
I'm glad to be catalan when I see something like this! It's just incredible! And about this bull fighting.... how anybody can say that the Catalan culture is not that different than the Spanish one?? Are they mad?? xx