The gigantes took my pacifier!

I got an unexpected lesson on Spanish culture today when I showed up to class a few minutes early! There´s no Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny or Santa Claus in Spain. Instead they have their own legends and traditions: Ratoncito Perez, los Reyes Magos... And today I learned a new one. Los gigantes de Tudela. 

"Do we still wear diapers?" my coteacher asked the kids (but in Spanish of course, they were finishing their Spanish lesson while I waited). "¡No, ya somos mayores!"

"Do we still drink from bottles? ¡No, somos mayores!"

"Do we still use pacifiers? ¡No, no somos bebés!"

"And what happened to your pacifiers?" she asked them.

"The gigantes took them!" one kid responded (to my confusion), and the rest quickly agreed.

These aren´t any old giants, though, my coteacher explained to me, after realizing I had no idea what they were talking about. These are Tudela's giants, and every year they take to the streets of Tudela to celebrate the Fiestas of Santa Ana, the patron saint of the city. 

Dancing gigantes in the Plaza de Fueros in Tudela
(Credit: Diario de Navarra)

A tradition dating back 400 years, the gigantes are enormous twelve-feet-tall figures of famous historical or literary personalities. There's former kings and queens of Navarra, Marc Anthony and Cleopatra, the Gigantes of the Three Cultures representing the Arabs, Jews, and Christians who coexisted in the city for years, and even one of Pocahontas.

Tudela´s gigantes
Source: Centro Cultural "Miguel Sánchez Montes"

And every year, on the last day of the Fiestas of Santa Ana (which last for a week), the kids of Tudela give their pacifiers to the gigantes and promise they'll be "big kids" and stop using them. 
Now I have one more reason to stay in Tudela through July for the Fiestas: to meet the infamous pacifier-stealing gigantes of Tudela!