Originally published at: A Castell is a tower of humans climbing up upon one another | Boing Boing
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I think I learned about this the first time BB posted about it.
It’s still on my bucket list, to go witness this in person some year.
Exciting, unique, just the right amount of risk but you can see how careful they are to protect the participants, especially the children.
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Clive Barker had a very memorable story about something like this…
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I can’t imagine the bravery it must take to be the person at the very top of the castell.
… who is more than likely a very young child. The base of the tower is made up of burly dudes, but the higher up you get, the smaller and lighter the castellers have to be. There’s usually a “skinny teenage girl” layer somewhere toward the top, but the enxaneta (“rider”) who climbs to the very top can be as young as six or seven.
As well as static castells, there’s a pilar caminant (“walking pillar”) which actually moves; the pilar has just one person at each level (presumably you could have a castell or torre caminant but I never saw it done). One that I saw collapsed twice; the first time, they rebuilt the pilar and the tiny enxaneta got right back up; the second time, everyone decided that enough was enough, and the rather tearful child got big hugs from all the women present until he felt better.
I have some pictures of castellers where you can see how really tiny some of the kids involved are. (This was the pilar caminant, complete with its enxaneta).
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I came here to say any time I see a story about this I think of the Clive’s book’s of blood and the story about the “giants”.
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It always makes me think of the one arresting scene in World War Z.
Would love to someday see the non-zombie version though
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When I have seen these (was only in Catalonia once but there seemed to be a festival on everywhere and we stumbled across them all the time!) there have indeed been giants (and big heads) nearby…
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“Castell de Zombis” has a certain ring to it.
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“In the Hills, the Cities”. Relocated to Yugoslavia where the conceit of individuals merging themselves into a collective entity to join murderous battle with a neighbouring community somehow seems appropriate.
Oh, there’s a documentary!
Montserrat Rossell Xicola, producer of the film Castells observes that “The human tower is a metaphor for Catalonian identity,” representing togetherness, solidarity, a softening of class differences. “You can step on your boss in a human tower,” Xicola adds. There’s some equality for you.
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Can’t have a “Castell de Zombis” without some sort of noise.
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And the making of a solid board game.
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I remember being awed during the opening ceremony of the Barcelona olympics in 1992 when multiple castelles were constructed. Amazing.
Jump to 2:50:45
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It really is a testament to what people can do together when they stop being dicks to each other and start working together… 
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