Walk On Stilts Day 2024 is on Saturday, July 27, 2024: why were stilts invented?

Saturday, July 27, 2024 is Walk On Stilts Day 2024. Walking Stilts at Amazon‎ Buy walking stilts at Amazon! Free Shipping on Qualified Orders.

Each day for honoring a brief history and use of stilts, Walk On Stilts Day encourages you to definitely buy some stilts (should you not already own any) and to use some height! Practice with buddies, learn how to spin and dance, but be careful for potholes!

STILT

HISTORY

and

WORLD

RECORDS

Here is some stilt history complete with many typos, many are deliberate and trickey. If you are going to copy it for a school project, be warned there are a ton of typos, so be prepared to WORK on the spelling. A spell checker will NOT do a 100% job.

Please give credit and circulate as widely as possible! If those of you with access to the RBBB and other old circus programs can add to the list, I would GREATLY appreciate it. Just email me with your additions and comments. Thank You.

Walk Tall,

Bill "Stretch" Coleman

Astounding Stilt Walking Events

In China, there is an old custom called "walking on stilts" that it is a performance which employs two lengths of wooden sticks over three metres long to one's feet and walking on them. It is also termed "tied-on long feet".This kind of performance can be traced back to very ancient origins. It is described in "Leizi"(a book), "There was a man named Lanzi in the state of Song (circa 7th century B.C.) who entertained the first Song emperor wit his feet of walking and running with two wooden poles taller than himself attached to his lower legs. Performers are dressed as legnedary characters and perform with long poles attached to their feet. It is a holiday folk performance, especially popular in some country areas.

1411 - Date of Namur (Belgium) town ordinance dealing with "Echasseur" or "jousting while wearing stilts"! Opposing teams of jousters, the Mélans and the Avresses, battle each other in a wild melee of blows using shoulders and elbows; shoving, jabbing, blocking and tripping their opponents. We observed one such enactmentat the 2002 Dallas Texas State Fair.

www.echasseurs.org <

This extraordinary sport is still practiced today.

Another troupe of stilt performers and jousters:

A collection of jousting photos

In 1891 Sylvain Dornon stilt walked from Paris to Moscow via Vilno (1830 miles) in either 50 stages (36.6 miles a day) or 58 days (31.55 miles a day). Joe Bowen says that there were rest stops that lengthened the overall time.

1892 M. Garisoain of Bayonne France stilt walked "the last 4.97 miles

into Biarritz inm, 42minutes (7.1 MPH).

1894 The Landes 273 mile stilt race held in France at an average speed

of 4.4 MPH!

Sept 14 1860: Across Niagara falls on stilts!

Jean Francois Gravelet, aka Charles Blondin, "the great Blondin", was the first and possibly the best known of Niagara's funambulists ! (tightrope walkers) and also was considered to be one of the greatest tightrope walkers of all time. He was also known as "Daredevil wire walker" and popularly known as "the Prince of Manila" (the rope he used was made of Manila.)

Click Here for more pictures and an Article on the life and times of Charles Blondin.

Depending on where he mounted the rope, its length measured either 900 or 1200 feet. "He crossed many times, at one time pushing a wheelbarrow, at another carrying a man upon his back, and again on stilts." This last, the crossing on stilts, was "when (Albert Edward) the Prince of Wales came to Niagara to see him".

Sources include Stretch’s copy of THE GRAPHIC Magazine dated February 27, 1897. And, “Niagara: Chisholm's Complete Guide to the Grand Cataract" copyright 1891 And searching the ‘net with GOOGLE.com .

While searching, I noticed that many homilies, or sermons, use Blondin as inspiration. When crossing Niagara with a wheelbarrow, he would ask for a volunteer to ride in the wheelbarrow by asking “ who believes . . .?" . And while many "believed" he could do the stunt, none would volunteer to be his passenger! So he would trundle his manager across in the wheelbarrow!

Look for my own sermons, homilies, and essays on stilt walking at . I’ll be taking my inspiration from the lives of some of the folks you see here, and from my own experiences stilt walking.

Whats a slogan for stilts lol ?

Stilts steer the world.

...Turning it round and round... (I just have this picture in my head of a really tall person turning the world as they walk around it on a pair of stilts... ^.^ some days my brain is funny.)

Any stilt-walkers out there, willing to answer a pretty simple question about stilt walking?

You tilt the stilts (rhyme) and then you kinda lean onto them. It's not hard, and you'll get the hang of it. And usually if you lose your balance, you fall backwards, and you step off of the stilts. The stilts lean with you when you get off of them. Stilts are really fun and you can learn to jump and do stairs and stuff! Have a blast @ camp! :)