People from Olot (Comarques Gironines, Catalonia) gathered on the city's main square to watch the dance of the giants during their local festa major (patron saint festivity).
As we have explained in more detail before, giants are traditional hollow figures used in traditional Catalan holidays including festa major and Corpus. They have been used in Catalan holidays for 600 years. While a band consisting of traditional Catalan street music instruments play the songs, people go underneath the giant figures, lift them and make them dance to the music's rhythm, they dance through the streets and reach the main squares.
In some places, when they reach the town's main square or another significant and large space, they dance a special dance to a whole cobla (Catalan music ensamble, which you can see sitting down on the stage in the photo above). This can be dancing a sardana (traditional Catalan music genre and dance) or other music played with sardana instruments. (For example, in my town they dance a sardana and a rock'n'roll).
In Catalonia, the festes majors are very different depending on whether you are in "Old Catalonia" (the North-Eastern half of Catalonia) or "New Catalonia" (the South-Western half). While giants are present in all the areas, the New Catalonia festes majors are larger and have many other dances, while in Old Catalonia the giants become the protagonists of the holiday.
Photo by Xavier Vila Coll on Twitter.
