A giant puppet is a

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...

which is tall enough to be easily visible to a street crowd while being manipulated by

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

s, on the same level. It is therefore most suitable for processions,

street theatre Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or university c ...

and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, although some large theatrical animations can be used for the same purpose. Giant puppets are usually articulated and made from a lightweight material. Some are manipulated by puppeteers using rods, strings, stilts, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Giant puppets have been used worldwide for street entertainment, celebrations or other purposes from ancient times, and they continue in use and in development today. Of the traditional giant

rod puppets A hand puppet is a type of puppet that is controlled by the hand or hands that occupies the interior of the puppet.Sinclair, A, ''The Puppetry Handbook'', p.15 A glove puppet is a variation of hand puppets. Rod puppets require one of the puppeteer ...

, the

Chinese dragon The Chinese dragon, also known as ''loong'', ''long'' or ''lung'', is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology, Chinese folklore, and Chinese culture at large. Chinese dragons have many Outline of life forms, animal-like forms such as Bixi (my ...

New Year puppet is "perhaps the most recognized form of the parade puppet". Of the most recent examples, Royal de Luxe of France has produced a notable set of giant string puppets.

History

Giant puppets are suited to outdoor performance, especially

and processions, because they are visible above the crowd while remaining on the same level.

Ancient origins

The origins of certain traditions which use giant puppets may be ancient. In

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

and other areas of India, the Dussehra festivals of September and October celebrate "the triumph of Good over Evil", and 15-metre puppets are carried in procession and then burned. "The principal demons of the epic

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

are represented:

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. He a ...

with his ten heads, the symbol of destruction and the forces of Evil, accompanied by his son Meghanada (

Indrajit Meghanada (), also referred to by his epithet Indrajita , according to Hindu texts, was the crown prince of Lanka, who conquered Indraloka (Heaven). He is regarded as one of the greatest warriors in Hindu texts. He is a major character mentio ...

) and brother

Kumbhakarna Kumbhakarna (Sanskrit: कुम्भकर्ण, lit. ''pot-eared'') is a powerful rakshasa and younger brother of Ravana from the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. Despite his gigantic size and appetite, he is described as a virtuous character an ...

. The puppets are made of a

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

framework covered in layers of paper. Painted in vivid colours, they are accompanied by fireworks to ensure a most spectacular incineration". In the Beembe of Mouyondzi,

Congo-Brazzaville The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

, the "

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

musical instruments ... reach the height of 1.5 metres and are carved from wood and hollowed to resonate the breaths of those that carry them, their mouth placed over the puppet’s back".

In the
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
(former
Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...
) the Bwende people take part in a funeral ceremony that consists of carrying, on a stretcher, an enormous puppet called niombo, an effigy to the dead chief. Stitched in woven fabric ornate with symbols, it is made of wood, raffia and herbs and contains the dried remains of the chief. Its size can be up to both in height and width. The Pende people lift a mbambi puppet, from high, deep into the bush, at the end of a masked dance. It is raised by sliding bamboo under the body – which is made up of fabric held together by circular rings of palm branches. The head is that of a bearded mask and the arms, holding fly swatters, are animated using twine attached to their outer-most extremities.

The Chinese giant dragon puppets of the

New Year New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system to ...

festivals are "perhaps the most recognized form of parade puppet". This type of puppet performs a weaving dance in which up to ten puppeteers control it at speed, with rods. Japan has its own tradition: "huge traditional hinkoko

marotte A marotte is a prop stick or sceptre with a carved head on it. Jesters usually used a marotte. The word is borrowed from the French, where it signifies either a fool's (literal) "bauble" or a fad. Typically carried by a jester or Arlecchino ...

s consist of a vertical manipulation rod, on the top of which is a grimacing head, and a horizontal rod that simulates the arms. They are dressed in a long cloth robe". File:Ravana Effigy on Vijayadashami Dasara Festival Jaipur Rajasthan India October 2013.jpg, Giant puppets controlled by lines at a Dussehra festival,

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

, 2013

Medieval developments

In 1480, the Giants of Douai tradition began, and it continues in the north of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

. "Giant, grotesque figures such as

Gayant Gayant the Gigantes y cabezudos, giant is an iconic processional puppet of Douai. Each year for three days at the beginning of July, the Gayant festival takes place. The Gayant family, composed of the giant's wife Marie Cagenon, and their thre ...

, Cagenon, Saint Michael and his devil" were used in a festival procession commemorating a French attempt to recapture Douai from the Dutch. After France reclaimed Douai in 1771, the annual procession continued, with the same puppets repurposed, only to be cancelled following the

1789 Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and then continued again in 1801.

20th century

In New York in 1963

Peter Schumann Peter Schumann (born 11 June 1934) is the co-founder and director of the Bread and Puppet Theater, Bread & Puppet Theater. Born in Silesia, he was a sculpture, sculptor and dancer in Germany before moving to the United States in 1961. In 1963 he f ...

established the

Bread and Puppet Theater The Bread and Puppet Theater (often known simply as Bread & Puppet) is a politically radical puppet theater, active since the 1960s, based in Glover, Vermont . The theater was co-founded by Elka and Peter Schumann. Peter is the artistic directo ...

, which employs giant puppets and inspired later works by others. By 1967, the company was "protesting against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

with rod puppets of impressive size". In Bread and Puppet's 1969 ''The Cry of the People for Meat'', "the nuptial dance of Mother Nature and

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars (mythology), Mars), grandfather ...

was performed by 5-metre-tall rod puppets: the main rod for the head, to which the costume was attached, a rod for each hand and a crew of six manipulators around the puppet itself". Giant puppets have been used in theatre too. In 1964 Edmund Tamiz directed ''Don Quichotte'' at the Récamier theatre,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, using giant puppets. In 1970 at the Vincennes arsenal, Ariane Mnouchkine's

Théâtre du Soleil Le Théâtre du Soleil (, "The Theater of the Sun") is a Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble founded by Ariane Mnouchkine, Philippe Léotard and fellow students of the '' L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq'' in 1964 as a collecti ...

featured some giant rod puppets. In 1973 Dominique Houdart directed Der Tag des großen Gelehrten Wu, which included "giant linear puppets made from aluminium" gesturing with their own manipulation rods and performing together with actors. Between the 1970s and 1990s the

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

-based Welfare State International produced giant puppets for processions. Then in 1990, in the streets of Paris, "some two and a half million spectators gathered in Paris’ Quartier de la Défense to witness huge, exuberantly colourful puppets manipulated to steel band music. As part of a massive festival orchestrated by Jean-Michel Jarre, these immense, mobile skeletons were literally attached to the puppeteers". Giant skeleton puppets have been produced by Processional Arts Workshop from 1998 for

New York's Village Halloween Parade The Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade on the night of every Halloween, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The parade, initiated in 1974 by Greenwich Village puppeteer and mask maker Ralph Lee, is the world' ...

. Jean-Luc Courcoult's Royal de Luxe company was started in 1979, but it was in 1993 that the giant marionettes of ''Le Géant tombé du ciel'' (or ''The Giant Who Fell from the Sky'') appeared. This involved "a string puppet 9 metres high, encased in mobile scaffolding to which all the points of leverage and manipulation were attached (chords, pulleys, etc). This giant puppet was manipulated by a crowd of "servers" dressed in red livery that jump, pull and generally busy themselves with its levers with perfect coordination". Then in 2000 the same company produced ''Les Chasseurs de girafes'' ( or ''The Giraffe Hunters'') in which "the largest giraffe was 12 metres tall, needing twenty manipulators, with six using pneumatic jack handles". Bread and Puppet Theater, September 8, 2018 - Cambridge, MA - DSC05673.jpg, Bread and Puppet Theater,

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, 2018 2019 Village Halloween Parade - 49375900551.jpg,

, Skeleton and monster puppet, 2019 2019 Village Halloween Parade - 49375455638.jpg, New York's Village Halloween Parade, Puppeteer carrying and controlling a skeleton puppet, 2019

21st century

David Solnit of Art And Revolutions produced giant puppets for a protest in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

against the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

in 2000. The opening ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 featured "a gigantic head exemplifying

Cycladic art The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from c. 3300 to 1100 BCE. Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures. Cycladic art therefo ...

emerging from the water. Opening into several pieces, a kouros statue appeared, which itself then separated into several pieces, revealing a third form. These sculptures are of interest for their use of string manipulation run by computer programmes and connected by electric pylons". In 2006 the Danish puppet maker Maria Lexa produced giant Sun and Moon puppets for a performance in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. In 2014 La Machine displayed two of its giant mechanical puppets, the spider La Princess and the 46-ton fire-breathing

dragon horse The ''longma'' is a fabled winged horse with dragon scales in Chinese mythology. Seeing a ''longma'' was an omen of a legendary sage-ruler, particularly one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Name The Chinese word ''longma'' combine ...

Long Ma in Beijing. Golden Tree Productions' 40-ton Man Engine, "the largest mechanical puppet ever made in Britain", representing a Cornish Tin Miner, was commissioned by the Cornwall Mining World Heritage Site for their "Tinth" anniversary. It toured Cornwall in 2016, and visited other British venues in 2018. It is high, and it is worked by at least twelve puppeteers. " heMan Engine has a giant

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newco ...

as a rocking neck, mining

head gear Headgear, headwear, or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head, including hats, helmets, turbans and many other types. Headgear is worn for many purposes, including protection against the elements, de ...

sheave wheels as shoulders, cast-iron flanges and rivets throughout and hands that reflect massive 20th-century

excavator Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...

s". It was made in Cornwall. Vision Mechanics' giant puppet Storm, which has been toured in Scotland and elsewhere since 2020, represents issues associated with

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. During the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, the giant string-puppet Mocco was "the centrepiece of the 2020 Nippon festival". In 2020 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

artists paraded bright, internally-lit puppets on poles. The

Handspring Puppet Company The Handspring Puppet Company is a puppetry performance and design company established in 1981 by Adrian Kohler, Basil Jones, Jon Weinberg and Jill Joubert. It is based in Cape Town, South Africa. History Jones and Kohler met at the Michael ...

's giant stilt puppet

Little Amal Little Amal is a partly-animatronic giant puppet which was used as the centrepiece of a performance art project called The Walk in 2021. The project was created by the British production companies The Walk Productions and Good Chance in collab ...

was toured across Europe and the United Kingdom in 2021 as the centrepiece of a project called The Walk, demonstrating a positive view of the lone child refugee. Trigger Productions Limited of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

produced The Hatchling, a giant

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...

-shaped dragon puppet, of kite construction, which processed through the streets and then flew over the sea at

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, England, in 2021. In the same year in

Siem Reap Siem Reap ( km, សៀមរាប, ) is the second-largest city of Cambodia, as well as the capital and largest city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia. Siem Reap has French colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old F ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

, The Giant Puppet Project was in its second decade of teaching children to create rod-manipulated giant puppets, of similar construction to the Dragon dance puppets of China. Long Ma, le Cheval Dragon créé par la Machine.jpg, Long Ma in 2015 STORM at COP26 (51668980887).jpg, Storm in 2021

Manipulation of giant puppets

Manipulation rods

Rod manipulation by visible puppeteers, from underneath or beside the giant puppet, can provide both support and movement. The Théâtre du Soleil and the Bread and Puppet Theater have used rod puppets, as did Dominique Houdart in ''The Day of the Great Scholar Wu''. The best-known rod puppet today is the traditional Chinese Dragon New Year puppet. The arms of the giant puppet Little Amal are controlled by rods. Trigger Productions' kite-constructed dragon puppet The Hatchling was manipulated by rods while walking on land in 2021. Singapore Dragondance-performance-01.jpg, Chinese New Year Dragon Dance,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, 2015

String manipulation

Royal de Luxe's ''The Giant Who Fell from the Sky'' (1992) and other projects used giant string puppets. 0110-Géants-Genève-La Grand-Mère.jpg, Grandmother,

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, 2017 Le Scaphandrier a Montreal - 013.jpg, Diver,

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, 2017 375th Anniversary Of Montreal 58.jpg, Xolo the dog, Montreal, 2017 0062-Géants-Carouge-La Petite.jpg, Little Giant, Geneva, 2017

Stilts

The giant puppet Little Amal incorporates an interior puppeteer on stilts, which are contained within the puppet's legs. The puppet has ten sets of legs to fit ten individual interior puppeteers. Little Amal at Barnsley 30 October 2021 (49).JPG,

with internal puppeteer on stilts, and puppeteers with rods,

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, 2021

Controls for kites

When the giant dragon puppet The Hatchling, built as a kite, flew over

Plymouth Sound Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England. Description Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abo ...

in 2021, she was initially lifted manually from Plymouth Hoe by puppeteers, then the vessel ''St Nicholas'' held her lines and flew her as a kite from above Plymouth Hoe across Plymouth Sound to the shore where she was retrieved.

Floats

Where giant puppets are unable to walk by themselves, or where a giant walking puppet needs to be depicted sitting or lying down, they can be carried on floats, with only their head and hands being manipulated by puppeteers. Sea Odyssey, River Mersey.jpg, Royal de Luxe used a boat-float on the Mersey for three giant puppets in 2012

Other puppet controls

Manipulateurs assis (Royal de Luxe) Eléphant 6.jpg, Puppeteers controlling the head of Royal de Luxe's

Elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, 2016 Little Amal at Barnsley 30 October 2021 (32a).jpg,

's internal puppeteer controlling her head via the Harp mechanism,