Castelling: The 19th Century’s Answer to Planking

Posted by on May 30th, 2012

Over the last year or so we’ve seen a lot of news about people “planking”, “owling”, “horsemanning” and the less than stellar introduction of “snailing”. What most people aren’t aware is that things like the above mentioned fads have been around for a long time.

Which brings us to “castelling”.

The word “castell’ is actually Catalan for “castle”. The concept of “castelling” began sometime in the late 1800s in Valls, Spain.

So what is “castelling”? Much like “planking” and “owling” it’s pretty self-explanatory….castles…made with people.

From Wikipedia:

A castell is considered a success when stages of its assembling and disassembling, can be done in complete succession. The assembly is complete once all castellers have climbed into their designated places, and the enxaneta climbs into place at the top and raises one hand with four fingers erect, in a gesture said to symbolize the stripes of the Catalan flag. The enxaneta then climbs down the other side of the castell, after which the remaining levels of castellers descend in highest-to-lowest order until all have reached safety.

After watching some of these tenuous “castles” collapse in on themselves?

We’re pretty sure we’re going to try to make “snailing” happen.

[Wikipedia]

2 Responses to “Castelling: The 19th Century’s Answer to Planking”

  1. Bernat Says:
    May 30th, 2012 at 4:42 pm

     I guess we are weird people. Anyway, it is a pretty impressive thing to see live.

  2. Bernat Says:
    May 30th, 2012 at 4:42 pm

     I guess we are weird people. Anyway, it is a pretty impressive thing to see live.