DIA 332... 31 de mayo 2011

Yesterday in class we learned about the festivities during the celebration of Santa Tecla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Tecla_Festival) that is held in Tarragona every September. Today we visited La Casa de la Fiesta Museum to see the props used in the parades (we learned about them yesterday in class) and we also were fortunate enough to witness the construction of a castells (human tower tradition that began in Tarragona). Although both were very fascinating, I won't bore you with the details now! For the museum part of the day, basically people get inside these oversized puppets and parade around the city. Each represents something different and many of the animals have religious origins. The Castells are made by teams called "colles". The person who climbs to the very top is usually a child of 3-5 years old. When he or she reaches the top they salute the crowd with los cuatro dedos de sangre which is called the "fer l'aleta". After this signal, which is very emotional and holds carries a very significant meaning for the people of Catalonia, the members begin to dismount by sliding down each other until the tower is completely deconstructed. During the construction, salute, and deconstruction there are sections of music playing for each. Today we got to watch a practice. They practice about 3 times a week for 2-3 hrs each time practicing all the different types of castells. It was AMAZING! We asked them questions to share with class tomorrow. The most interesting was about the parents of the little kids at the very top. I asked if the parents were more scared or proud and they said it's a little bit of both. Many of the kids come from castellers families and it's not anything new but the parents can't help but be a little nervous and understandably so! The team was saw practice was "Jova" but there are many more in Catalonia and they compete every year to see who is the best!