Daniele Di Bartolomeo, “Giants in European Festivals and Processions: A Short Note”

Our time is characterised by a particular use of the past, as two historians noted: Salvatore Settis spoke of “quotations out of context” and François Hartog of “techniques of «presentification»” (S. Settis, Futuro del “classico”, Torino, Einaudi, 2004; F. Hartog, The Double Fate of the Classics, “Critical Inquiry”, 35 (2009), pp. 964-979; id., Régimes d’historicité: présentisme et expériences du temps, Paris, Seuil, 2003.). Both alluded to the imaginative use of symbols (especially Greek and Roman ones) and nomenclatures, as well as to the approximate use of mythology and religion in the intricate patchwork of post-modernity. Nonetheless, it can be declared that similar use of history has been ongoing for many centuries.

In this regard, the following paper serves to examine a suggestive case study of the use of the past: the manufacture of processional and parade giants, and the transformation of their original and symbolic meaning (R. Meurant, Les géants processionnels et de cortège en Europe, en Belgique, en Wallonie, Bruxelles, Ministère de la culture française, 1979). Giants are puppets of superhuman size or dummies in animal form, constructed chiefly of wicker and wood until the 18th century, and also of iron and aluminium in the following centuries. In the twilight of the middle ages, giants moved on stilts; in the second half of the 15th century, they took on the form of upright mannequins, which paraded and danced across the streets; they were “brought”, “worn” and, more recently, dragged on platforms and wagons during religious processions and civic or ludic events.

To grasp the concept, think of the Tarasque of Tarascon (L. Dumont, La Tarasque, Paris, Gallimard, 1951), the famous monster of Provence, well known in Southern France, but also in Spain and in Portugal as Tarasca (C. Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons. An Encyclopaedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth, New York/London, Norton, 2000, p. 353), or Santa Coca (Cfr. E. Veiga de Oliveira, Figures gigantesques processionnelles au Portugal, pp. 329-343; F.J. Torres Sampaio, A propos des géants de Viano do Castelo, pp. 345-370; E. Meunier, A propos des géants de Viana do Castelo. Géants, dragons et animaux fantastiques au Portugal du Moyen Age à nos jours, pp. 371-414; all in: Géants, dragons et animaux fantastiques en Europe, ed. by J.-P. Ducastelle, J. Fraikin, Bruxelles, Ministère de la Communauté française de Belgique, 2003), respectively. The Tarasque is a gigantic zoomorphic hybrid with a lion’s head. It has a tortoise shellcovered with several aculeos, a scaly tail tipped with a scorpion’s sting, and six short legs. According to legend, the Tarasque was born in Galicia of the famous Leviathan and Onachus, an incendiary monster. It lived in Camargue on Rhone river banks, and used to terrify local people. Saint Martha of Bethany was the only one able to tame the monster. Marie-France Gueusquin, historian, believes that in the 19th century, the Tarasque festival underwent a drastic change due to the vogue nationale du medieval (M.-F. Gueusquin, La Tarasque dans la modernité, in Géants, dragons, pp. 309-314): indeed the role of the vicious dragon was downsized by the introduction of new gigantic figures, including those representing the last rulers of the d’Anjou dynasty.

René Meurant also evidenced that the Tarasque was not the only one to lose their religious meaning and, consequently, their original role. The same fate befell many other giants.

For many centuries, Giant festivals have been celebrated regularly in several European regions, especially in Belgium (B. Twyffels, Les créations de géants en région bruxelloise (1947-2001), in Géants, dragons, pp. 441-499; R. Meurant, Les géants de cortège en Belgique, in id., Les géants processionnels, pp. 175-214; Géants et dragons. Mythes et traditions à Bruxelles, en Wallonie, dans le nord de la France et en Europe, Tournai, Casterman, 1996.), Southern Holland (R. Meurant, La figuration des Saints et en particulier de Saint-Christophe, dans les processions des anciens Pays-Bas, in id., Les géants processionnels, pp. 227-248), Northern France (G. Torpier, Dictionnaire des géants du nord de la France, Villeneuve d’Ascq, Editions Ravet-Anceau, 2007), and Spain, but also in Southern France (M. Vovelle, Contribution à une réflexion globale: géants, mostre et machineries dans la fête provençale, in Les géants processionnels en Europe. Colloque du 20 au 22 août 1981 (500ème anniversaire de Goliath), Bruxelles, Ministère de la Communauté française, 1983, pp. 347-363), Portugal, and Southern Italy. Such ceremonies take place in England (V. Alford, Géants processionnels et autres en Angleterre, “Le Guetter Wallon”, 1956, no. 136, pp. 40-45), Germany (T. Gebhard, A. Mitterwieser, Geschichte der Fronleichnamsprozession in Bayern, München, Weinmayer, 1949), Austria (K. Beitl, Die Umgangsriesen. Volkskundliche Monographie einer europäischen Maskengestalt, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der “Fête de Gayant” zu Douai in Nord Frankreich, Wien, Notring der wissenschaftlichen Verbände Österreichs, 1961) and Russia as well, but are much less popular. Since more recent times, giant puppets have also been on parade in America, Asia and Africa (R. Meurant, Géants et monstres d’osier, in id., Les géants processionnels, pp. 143-145). This paper will only examine the European dimension of the phenomenon, with attention focused on Spanish and Italian festivals.

Firstly, it is crucial to highlight that many people contribute to preparations preceding a Giants’ parade: puppet constructors and restorers, masters of Giants ceremonies, festival spectators, and reporters. Everyone has a distinct role, and it is fascinating to see interaction among them contribute to the process of creating an ever-changing Giants’ profile.

Giants represent one of the most famous pieces of the great and everchanging mosaic of universal mythology (A. Cerinotti, Atlante illustrato dei miti greci e di Roma antica, Firenze, Giunti, 2003, 1st ed. 1998; L. Biondetti, Dizionario di mitologia classica. Dei, eroi, feste, Milano, Baldini & Castoldi, 1997; B. Colonna, Dizionario mitologico, Sant’Angelo di Romagna, Rusconi Libri, 2003). The deeds of these colossal beings are almost always set in epochal transition, in passage from one era to the next. The shift is usually accompanied by the defeat of the Giants by divine entities (in classical mythology and the biblical Genesis, for example); in rare cases, such as Norse mythology, Giants triumph over deities.

In this regard, Hesiod’s Cosmogony represents the most important plot, around which these legends are woven. In his oeuvre Theogony, the Greek author declares the first specimens of gigantic beings to have been the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Centimani Giants, all sons of two primal deities, Gaea and Uranus (the simultaneous son and husband of the goddess of Earth). Forced to save her children from her husband’s mortal envy, Gaea kept them confined in Tartar, the bowels of the Earth (i.e. inside her); thereafter she decided to produce a sickle, later used by Kronos, one of her children, to castrate Uranus, as a result of which the earth was fertilised and new Giants were born. Then, according to legend, the sickle fell in the Gulf of Messina, a Sicilian town (otherwise known as Zancle: sickle in Greek) believed to have been founded by Kronos-Saturn. Until this day, he is celebrated by a giant Kronos statue, on parade during the mid-August Feast of Assumption. Bearing his father’s fate in mind, Kronos began devouring children he had with his wife-sister Rhea. She managed to save one, Zeus, who ousted his father, forcing him to release the Cyclopes imprisoned in Tartar, and to restore his swallowed children to daylight.

From this moment on, two wars broke out: the first one was the Titanomachia (war of the Titans against Zeus supported by the Centimani Giants); the other one was the Gigantomachia (war of the Giants – supported by Gaea and the Centimani Giants – against Olympian gods and the demigod Hercules). Both wars ended with the defeat of the Giants.

Traditional cosmogonies aside, it is well-known that Giants have been depicted in other myths and sacred texts (Genesis, 6:4). Stories of Giants have also been the subject of numerous literary reinventions (Rose; M. Closson, M. White-Le Goff, Les géants entre mythe et littérature, Artois, Presses Universitaires, 2007); they are present in genealogies heralded by kings and nobles, in satirical literature by Rabelais and Lewis Carroll (Rose, p. XXVI), in a number of fairytales (including the Battle of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series), in videogames, and even in tourist marketing and advertising.

Different religious cultures have incorporated Giant images in their genealogies by connecting the destruction/subjection of these colossal creatures to the supremacy of man, reached “through some divine or divinely inspired hero power” (Rose, p. XXVI). Many authors have taken the image of the Antediluvian Giants – members of to the Nephilim race, born of human women and fallen angels (“Similary, the Anakim and the Nephilim of Hebraic texts, which were later incorporated into the Christian biblical texts, accounted for the pre-Judaic period of the monstrous and chaotic that was destroyed in the Flood”: ibid., p. XXV) – from the Book of Enoch, constructing a parallel between Nephilim Giants challenging God, and Titans challenging deities (J. Fraikin, La Dissertation sur l’existence des Géans de dom Augustin Calmet, in Géants, dragons, pp. 14-15). According to legend, at least one of these giant races survived the Deluge (“Some, such as Annius of Viturbo, accounted for this by considering Noah and his family to have been giants, while others invented a surviving giant who rode the roof of the Ark”: Rose, p. XXVI), ensuring its preservation in the history of Israel and in the European symbolic repertoire.

That of Giants is also a story of periodical comebacks, not only in literature (Gulliver’s Travels) but also in references to the real world: to earthquakes (attributed to Giants’ thirst for revenge), to archaeological excavations, and to the discovery of the Americas (Magellan’s Patagonians, for example). In Norse mythology, the gods’ return is a prophecy predicting the time of Ragnarok (i.e. “twilight of the gods”), when Giants will defeat Gods (Settis, pp. 9-10) in final battle.

Some scholars argue that processional and parade Giants have appeared as early as the 14th century, albeit historical sources testify their presence only in the 15th. The Giants of Spain and of the ancient Netherlands (Belgium, Southern Holland and Northern France) were Europe’s first colossal figures (R. Meurant, Figures gigantesques en Europe, in id., Les géants processionnels, pp. 320-330). According to René Meurant, Giants (“simulacres fixes ou ambulants, érigés ou promenés à l’occasion de cérémonies religieuses ou civiles ou bien encore utilisés comme accessoires ludiques”) are a late mediaeval invention (R. Meurant, Contribution à l’étude des géants processionnels et de cortège dans le Nord de la France, la Belgique et les Pays-Bas, in id., Les géants processionnels, p. 91). Extremely popular in the 15th and 16th centuries, these enormous figures suffered ecclesiastical (17th century) and state censorship (18th century) (R. Meurant, Contribution à l’étude des géants processionnels et de cortège dans le Nord de la France, la Belgique et les Pays-Bas, in id., Les géants processionnels, p. 158), even during the French Revolution (But see L. Hunt, Hercules and the Radical Image in the French Revolution, “Representation”, 1983, 2 (Spring), pp. 95-117, and R. Reichardt, The Heroic Deeds of the New Hercules: the Politicization of Popular Prints in the French Revolution, in Symbols, Myths and Images of the French Revolution. Essays in Honour of James A.Leith, ed. by J. Germani, R. Swales, Regina, University of Regina / CPRC Press, 1998, pp. 37-46.). The 19th century saw a nationalistic revival of the Giants’ tradition (Meurant, Contribution, p. 119), while in the 20th century that of Giants have become primarily a local myth (Vovelle, pp. 359-363).

The history of Giants obviously begins before the Seventeenth century and extends far beyond the Baroque Age. But it’s from the late Sixteenth century that something decisive for the future of European Giants happens: the final going out from the religious scene in which they were originally placed (the processions of Corpus Christi) and the beginning of a uninterrupted history of contamination. Thus there is something important that binds the Giants festive tradition in our field of research (the cultural heritage of the Baroque in Twenty-First century).

Originally, Giants paraded during Corpus Christi processions as part of sacred representations. The biblical giant Goliath (with David his challenger), and the Dragon, an ancient zoomorphic colossus, defeated by the lance of St. George and the Cross of St. Margaret, were the first gigantic figures to appear (Meurant, Géants et monstres d’osier, p. 173). According to Meurant, many other legendary animals took part in late mediaeval and early modern time processions: “Le lion, la lionne, l’éléphant, le chameau, le griffon, la licorne, l’aigle, l’autruche, le cygne[.] le cerf, le léopard, le tigre, le chameau, l’aigle, le poulain, le dromadaire” (Meurant, Géants et monstres d’osier, p. 156). Biblical figures apart, other giants have been taken from the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine: Saint Christopher is one such example (J.-P. Ducastelle, Christophe, le dragon, Goliath, Samson, Bayard, Hercule, figures du XVe siècle, in Géants, dragons, pp. 83-139, here 83).

The French historian Jean-Pierre Ducastelle stated that, since the 16^th century, “certains thèmes laïques se sont introduits dans les processions àcôté des scene religieuses”; he was referring in particular to stories of the horse Bayard and the four sons of Aymon, (R. Meurant, Le Cheval Bayard dans les processions et dans les cortèges, in id., Les géants processionnels, pp. 277-293) and to the myth of Hercules (Ducastelle). During the period, many giants lost their biblical identity and became anonymous colossus: many Goliaths have been transformed into local or national founding heroes in Roman-style attire. Other giants, representing the wives and children of these heroes, were similarly represented in enormous form (R. Meurant, Baptêmes, fiançailles et mariages de géants, in Les géants processionnels, pp. 603-620; id., Géants et monstres d’osier, pp. 153-155). In the early modern age, spectators could witness such changes, especially during people’s holidays, and triumphal city entries of kings and princes. Today, there are only a few European cities where traditional giants are put on show, or famous battles between David and Goliath and between St. George and the Dragon are reconstructed. Nevertheless, many cities have preserved selected historical elements in the parades they organise (“Le Hainaut est la seule province belge où soient encore représenté deux des jeux processionnels médiévaux les plus caractéristiques: le combat de David contre Goliath à Ath, celui de saint George contre le dragon à Mons”, in Meurant, Les géants processionnels, p. 518).

René Meurant says that popular culture played a major role in the life of processional and parade Giants; nonetheless it is a known fact that popular culture is primarily the invention of intellectuals (F. Benigno, Il popolo che abbiamo perduto. Note sul concetto di cultura popolare tra storia e antropologia, “Giornale di Storia Costituzionale”, 2009, n. 18, II semestre, pp. 151-178): a graphic memory, with the aid of which scholars imagined their history-deprived archaic universe.

Hereinafter follows a description of a specific example of processional and parade giants of Southern Italy and Spain. With reference to Italy, we must not forget that in some Sicilian and Calabrian cities, Giants still parade along with the Vare, the splendid baroque machines depicting the Assumption of Mary into heaven. However, as for Spain, we can report that during the Festa de la Mercè the city of Barcelona is transformed into a neo-Baroque festive space, populated by strange and dangerous breatingh fire animals and dozens of Giant figures.

THE GIANTS IN SICILY AND CALABRIA

Myths about giants form part of north-western Sicily’s cultural heritage (G. Pitrè, La famiglia, la casa, la vita del popolo siciliano, Palermo, Il Vespro, 1978, chapt. XVIII: Carri trionfali. Giganti e Santoni di cartapesta. Rappresentazioni mute, p. 311; id., Feste Patronali in Sicilia, ed. by A. Amitrano Savarese, Palermo, Documenta, 2005; R. Santoro, I Giganti di Messina, “Archivio storico siciliano”, ser. IV, vol. XII-XIII (1986-1987), pp. 80-105; S. Todesco, G. Fiorentino, In forma di festa. Le ragioni del sacro in provincia di Messina, Messina, Skriba, 2003; S. Todesco, G. Molonia, Teatro mobile, feste di mezzagosto a Messina, Messina, GBN, 1991; La Vara e i Giganti: le “Machine” festive di Mezzagosto fra arte, storia e tradizione, Messina, Assessorato alla Cultura, 1999). This is a land where the existence of these super humans has always been recorded: in times of mythological tales, all through the days of discovering huge, oversized bones, until modern-day festive parades. The custom of building towering puppets originated in the port of Messina – which, given its shape, is often associated with the mythological sickle carried by the Titan Kronos. The custom spread to nearby Calabria, where Sicilian names, stories and physiognomy were re-adapted with a few original additions (F. Vallone, Giganti, cammelli di fuoco, ciucci e cavallucci nella tradizione popolare calabrese, Messina, Adhoc, 2009; G. Tucci, Giganti processionali, in Grande Dizionario Enciclopedico, vol. IX, Turin, UTET, 1969, p. 50; id., I Giganti processionali di Calabria, “Terra di Calabria (Annuario di vita regionale)”, 1965-1966, pp. 37-43). The mosaic of European symbols, rites and legends that have arisen around giants, has found evocative Italian expression in regions striding both sides of the straits. In this area, the march of the giants has always had religious connotations; it has been reconstructed in religious setting, with the Madonna and Patron saints in attendance. Unlike Spanish Giants accompanied by the typical cabezudos or enanos (peculiar miniature characters with huge heads), or Belgian Giants marching with monsters and fantastic animals, the ones in southern Italy are associated with the enigmatic figure of a camel: a cloth/papier-mâchépuppet on a wooden skeleton, carried by some bearers. In some cases, the exotic creature is accompanied with a little rider, generally referred to as the giants’ son: the Moorish tax collector or the little devil. This last reminds us that the legend of Sicilian and Calabrian giants has other roots besides written Roman-Greek mythology: it was also formed by the epics of Norman “liberation” of southern Italy from Saracen domination. The festival of the Assumption in Messina is quintessential to all historical and legendary references: as well as the Vara (the marvellous, baroquescenic “machine” symbolising Mary’s assumption to the heavens), also in this feast the Giants Mata and Grifone (identified not only with Saturn and his wife-sister Rhea, but also with the two Saracen princes defeated by Roger, the Norman King) and the camel (legend has it that following the Saracen victory, the count entered Messina on a camel) parade. On the other hand, the Giants of Mistretta (province of Messina) surpass the former example in their rich mixture of mythology and religion: the two giants are viewed as founding divinities (it is no coincidence that the male has been named Kronos) as well as patron saints of the city (L. Lombardo, I Gesanti, Marina di Patti, Pungitopo, 1989; Cronos e Mitia. Giganti a Mistretta, ed. by S. Todesco, N. Lo Castro, Messina, Soprintendenza per i beni culturali e ambientali, 1990). These may be seen as further points of contact with the festive north European tradition, which continues to hail giant figures from sacred scriptures (such as Goliath or Saint Christopher). The connection between the myth of giants and religion has been preserved and is amplified in the giant repertoire of southern Italy: the huge saints, or Santoni of Modica, or the Sampauluna of San Cataldo (Caltanissetta) – huge representations of Apostles.

The giants of Calabria parading in municipalities of Tropea, Briatico, Seminara and Palmi, are reproductions of the Messina style. At the close of the festival, the puppet representing the camel is destroyed, whereupon its carcass is used as a frame to put on a dazzling firework display – a custom recalling the agrarian rites of purification and regeneration (This tradition is also performed in the Abruzzi, another Southern Italian region: A.A. Bernardy, I nostri “géants de cortège”, “Pallante. Studi di filologia e folklore”, 1931, n. from April, pp. 49-54; B.M. Galati, Vita tradizionale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise. Saggi storico-critici, Firenze, Olschki, 1961; G. Tucci, Nota sui giganti processionali d’Abruzzo, “Rivista Abruzzese. Rassegna trimestrale di cultura”, XXIII (1970), 1-2, pp. 19-24).

THE GIANTS IN SPAIN

In Spain, the giants seem to have been around since the 14th century (J.-M. Deplurez, Sur les traces des géants du corpus de Tolède, “Mélanges de la Casa de Velasquez”, vol. XXIII (1987), pp. 281-306; J.M. Gómez-Tabanera, Fiestas populares y festejos tradicionales, in El Folklore español, ed. by J.M. Gómez-Tabanera, Madrid, IEAA, 1969, pp. 149-216; A. Capmany, El Baile y la Danza, in Folklore y Costumbres de España, vol. II, ed. by F. Carreras y Candi, Barcelona, Alberto Martín, 1931, pp. 362-385; J. Amades, Costrumari Català , Barcelona, Salvat, 1952; id., Gegants, nansi altres entremesos, Barcelona, La Neotipia, 1934; N. de Hoyos, Un avance al estudio de los gigantes esteros en España, in Etnología y tradiciones populares. Congreso de Córdoba, Zaragoza, Institución Fernando el Católico, 1974, pp. 367-378). However, their recorded presence begins with the following century only. The first of many Spanish giants (in anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms) marched during the Corpus Christi procession. In addition to the giants (known as gigantes in Castilian Spanish and gegants in Catalan), other parade participants include dwarves (also called cabezudos or capgrossos), the cavalls cotoners (little horses made of cloth worn by men resembling centaurs, a hybrid also frequently found in France, and known as chevaux-jupon, usually accompanying giants and bestial monsters), and a long list of animal figures (the Drac, the Aliga, the Vibria, the Tarasca, the Mulassa, the Bull and the Lion). Akin to their European cousins, the Spanish giants were initially placed on stilts and decorated with cloth, but with time their structure was hardened, and their posture became more stable.

In the years 1380 and 1424, the Corpus Christi of Barcelona saw the appearance of the giant Goliath (with David) and the superhuman figure of Saint Christopher (with little Jesus on his shoulders). It seems that in 1399, at the coronation of Martin I, spectators witnessed the symbolic killing of a dragon. On the other hand, records tell of an eagle at the Corpus of Toledo in 1372; 1493 marks the first year of matching four continental giants with the Tarasca mounted by the Anna Bolena puppet. In Granada of 1767, the Tarasca was accompanied by seven huge Roman emperors guilty of having opposed Christianity (a similar arrangement was found in Seville, where six emperors and the Tarasca represent the seven cardinal sins). The dwarves, on the other hand, were present in Valencia as early as the 16th century: according to some, when the dwarves are seen together with giants, they symbolise the submission of both the big and the small to God; others go as far as referring to them as ancestors of the giants.

The origin of all these creatures lies with the Bible and hagiographic episodes narrated in the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine: the dragon, the vibria(female equivalent of the dragon) and the Tarasca are associated with Saint George, Saint Martha, and Saint Michael; the eagle is a reminiscence of the virtues of the Evangelist; the Lion is associated with Saint Mark, and the bull and the Mulassa with the nativity scene. Goliath (originally with David) and Saint Christopher (the giant carrying the child Christ figure) are the two most important giants.

However, with the passage of time, these figures have breached scenographic limits imposed by religious symbolism. The giants and beasts alike have taken on new and ever-changing identities, due to their being subject to a stratification process, often rendering them unrecognisable to a modern viewer, although extremely vital. Once the symbolic, religious features are removed, one finds original biblical giants re-decorated as Roman warriors and national heroes, mediaeval rulers and anonymous city life protagonists. For example, once the assorted giant Goliath puppets were disassociated from David’s figure, they took on changeable historical identity and often anachronistic physiognomy, especially when they began to be accompanied by a wife and countless children. The dragon, having lost its co-protagonists (Saint George, Saint Martha and Saint Michael), becomes a non-descript monster. The same holds true for all giant bestial characters.

The golden age of Spanish giants began with the late Middle Ages, and came to a standstill during the age of enlightenment, specifically following the pronouncement of restrictive measures by Charles III in 1780. Conversely, in the 19th century the reinterpretation of giants as national symbols led to their proliferation. The civil war (1936-39) led to the destruction of many giants, while others fell into disuse. Under Francisco Franco’s regime, many of the figures were instrumentalised by intransigent clergy and the regime’s propaganda. The death of the Caudillo (1975) inaugurated an intense period of recovery and reinvention of the entire Spanish giant repertoire. Today’s festivals feature a mixture of ancient and modern giant figures, often thrown in together without much thought, but with no loss to their original mysterious fascination.