Issue date: 09 Oct, 2008
The series Traditional Sports and Games devotes this issue to the Castells (Human Towers), typical from some areas in Cataluña consisting on building human towers of various levels.
Castells belongs to the locomotion games and requires corporal movement. It is difficult to establish its origin and it is very popular in Catalonia especially in the north of Tarragona and south of Barcelona although it is also found in villages of the Alto Aragon where it is performed at the end of some folkloric dances. The building of these towers requires a technique that is passed on from one generation to the other. Currently the Castells is a form of entertainment and competition where the colles- associations made up of people of all ages that make up the tower, compete to build the highest, some of which can have up to 10 levels. The densely arranged crowd of castellers at the base of the tower is known as the pinya. Here is where most of the people are. Its function is to sustain the second level, lighten the weight on those who form the foundation and to soften the impact of anyone falling. On top of the pinya are the baixos or els primers, those at the first level, then els segons, those that make up the second level and so on until the top of the tower. The highest levels are made up of children; the dosos which is the level sustaining the aixecador who in turn sustains the exaneta which is the topmost child who raises his arm when reaching the top. The stamp is issued with a vignette with no postal value depicting the composition of a human castle of various levels where the participants are wearing the typical clothing consisting of white trousers, a black sash, and a red shirt.
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