31.03.2014 - 12:52
Human towers are one of Catalonia’s most striking and unusual cultural activities. Teams with hundreds of participants—sometimes as many as a thousand—construct carefully coordinated layers of people, eight, nine, even ten stories high, called “castells” or castles. Catalan human tower building involves every part of society, from huge burly weight lifters in the base to small children at the top, with everything in between, including the crowd that often lends support, and as such has come to symbolize the enormously significant social cohesion that characterizes Catalan society.
Òmnium is organizing the human towers in seven European capitals—Paris, Brussels, London, Lisbon, Geneva, Berlin, and Barcelona—on the same day, June 8th, to call attention to Catalonia’s desire to vote on a referendum for its independence on November 9, 2014. It has opened a crowdfunding page to support the effort and explains that,
The “Catalans want to vote. Human towers for democracy” project wants each and every one of us to speak out from the bottom of our hearts for democracy. We want our voice to be heard in Europe and the rest of the world through the Human Towers and what they represent telling the whole wide world that the Catalan people want to democratically decide their future as a nation.
Òmnium Cultural was founded in 1961 in order to promote the Catalan language and spread Catalan culture at a time when both were forbidden by Franco’s dictatorial regime in Spain. The group has more than 38,000 members and is a prominent civil group supporting Catalan independence.
