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After a 3 years wait, the Giant Tavy was finally out roaming the streets of Calstock again. Lots of places celebrate the coming of spring, but few have their very own giant – Calstock is the place to be on the evening of the early May Day Bank Holiday Monday, with a festival connected to an ancient legend about the origins of the local rivers Tamar and Tavy. The tale is one of love and loss – water nymph Tamara had two giant suitors, Tavy and Torridge, and couldn’t decide which one she preferred; after Tamara’s father used a spell to turn her into a stream and made the giants fall into a deep sleep, the giant Tavy awoke. Tavy chose also to be transformed into a watercourse and the rivers Tamar and Tavy eventually meet at Plymouth Sound; Torridge stirred later, copied them and raced to find the others but went in the wrong direction and even today the Torridge flows to the North near Bideford, never to meet his friends again. At Calstock local giant puppet Tavy leads a procession into the village starting near the Viaduct, and as he moves amongst the houses he taps on the upstairs windows to tell everyone to come out and join him; the parade swells with people playing musical instruments or just rhythmically tapping any object that comes to hand. Following maypole dancing and often a play telling the tale of the nymph and the giants by the local children, Tavy sails away for another year down the river Tamar in his Tamar barge!
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