The Giants in Calabria

The peculiarities of the festive panorama of Calabria, which includes many examples of giants based on the Messina model (found, for example, in the province of Reggio Calabria, in the towns of Tropea, Briatico, Seminara and Palmi), as well as that of the little being who rides the camel, is mainly linked to a custom which refers to the agricultural rites of purification and regeneration: the destruction of the puppet depicting the exotic animal at the end of the feast, after its carcass was used as a scaffold to stage a dance of fire pyrotechnics.