Christmas Catalan Poo traditions

2:00 a. m.

( 2 ) Comments

Ok, so I need to post something in english for all my american readers who never post comments cuz they only use myspace or facebook... but I know you're there, and you don't need to register to write on my "wall"... I don't have walls, my blogspot is flat...

Anyway, today I'm gonna tell you about the Christmas Catalan Poo traditions... sounds interesting huh?

El caganer:

Catalan culture is this way, we love poo... that's why in the nativity el pessebre, we include a guy with his pants down carpping somewhere, we call that guy caganer.

Originally the caganer was a symbol of the fertility of the fields, but nowdays it's just a funny guy we hide somewhere in our pessebres.

The traditional caganer is a shephard with the typical catalan costume and a red hat called barretina, but nowdays you can find all kind of caganers.

Every christmas, catalan artisans choose some popular people amongst local and international celebrities, football (soccer) players, politicians or whoever deserves it, and make a caganer with their face. Yoy can even find the royal family and the Pope caganers in some stores.

You might think that's something bad but this is considered an honor in Catalunya.

El tió:

Kids in Catalunya have a log in ther places called tió. You put it in the living room and the kids feed it every day since whenever you decide to start it till christmas. Then, the 24th of December kids gather around the log with their home-made sticks and get ready for the caga-tió ceremony.

The ceremony consists on gatherting around the log and hitting it, asking it to poo some presents, that normally are torrons (typical christmas dessert) or candy. The kids usually sing some typical tió songs, the one I used to sing was:

Caga tió, caga torró d’avellana i de pinyó, no caguis arengades que són massa salades, caga torrons, que són més bons. Caga tió sinó et darem un cop de bastó.

That actually means something like "you'd better poo some torrons for me or I'm gonna hit you with my stick".

Originally the tió was just a regluar log from the fireplace, but nowdays they usually paint a face on it and put the typical barretina hat on itis "head".

Now you might think catalans are dirty and violent, but we're not, we're really nice people, just visit Catalunya and see it for yourself!

2 Responses to " Christmas Catalan Poo traditions "

MaRiNa said :
12:50 p. m.
no si el nadal no t'agrada...
David said :
6:00 p. m.
no m'agrada el nadal pro trobo important preservar les tradicions i els trets identitaris...

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