The parade of the Giants in Calabria today

The Calabrian towns with the most picturesque and storied parades are those of San Costantino (the Feast of Saint Francis of Paola, 15 May) and San Leo, quarters of Briatico (in the province of Vibo Valentia), Palmi (the Feast of the Assumption, 15 August) and Seminara (the Feast of the Madonna dei Poveri, Our Lady of the Poor, 10 to 15 August) in the province of Reggio Calabria. At Palmi, which shares also the Feast of the Assumption and the parade of the Vara with Messina (the scenic apparatus which depicts the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven), during the celebrations of the the middle of August the giants parade through the town along with a pony (which replaced the camel). In San Costantino di Briatico and Seminara, however, the exotic animal, ridden by a small Moor, is accompanied by the giants Mata and Grifone. In some locations, recently, the “son of giants” has recently been reintroduced which in the past marched alongside the Giants in Mistretta. His origin could be similar to that of the cabezudos (the dwarfs with big heads who appear along with Spanish giants). At Vibo Valentia, every year in mid-August, there is a rally and a big parade of giants not only from Calabria. The oldest giants are preserved in the Museo Calabrese di Etnografia e Folklore (Calabrian Museum of Ethnography and Folklore) Raffaele Corso of Palmi (Reggio Calabria), and in the Raffaele Lombardi Satriani archive in San Costantino di Briatico (Vibo Valentia). In San Giovanni, a quarter of the municipality of Zambrone (Vibo Valentia), the Centro Studi Umanistici e Scientifici Aramoni (the Aramoni Center of Science and Humanities) oversaw the construction from of a pair of giants, in order to restore the original features of the giants. The giants of Calabria have been immortalized in two documentaries: Profili sul Tirreno, made by Manfredo Giffone in 1952, shows a short piece of the parade puppets in Tropea; I Gigantari, produced in 2008 by Ella Pugliese, is a short film dedicated to the art and dance of the giants and their builders.