In my excitement, I immediately began Googling Christmas in Barcelona... only to discover that they have the Best.Christmas.Traditions.Ever. Not one, but TWO traditional figures are devoted to poo.
The Caganer is a figure of a Catalonian man with his trousers down, defecating on the ground (to fertilize the soil). It's a staple of their nativity scenes and is supposed to bring good luck.
The Caga Tio literally means "poo log" in Catalan. Children look after this log, keeping it nice and warm until Christmas Eve... when they bash it with sticks and demand it poop out presents and sweets.
Amazing. You can bet I'll be hitting the Christmas markets so I can bring these lovelies home with me.
WHAT!?! that is AMAZING. i especially like the thought of children hitting a log and demanding it to pooh. i cant stop laughing!
ReplyDeleteI know!!! I can't wait to see that.
ReplyDeleteOh. My. God. I'm moving to Catalonia.
ReplyDeleteI am so bringing a poo log to Nadine's for Christmas.
Bryn, can you possibly bring me back one of these for my international tacky souvenir collection? I'm totally serious. I have a good friend in Catalonia, but I don't think I can ask him for this, somehow.
ReplyDelete"Tio" means "uncle", or, more generally, "guy" in Castillian; I'm thinking maybe the log is, like, Uncle Poo? :-D
Hey, Kel... I'm sorry, I didn't get one of these for you. I was working with a limited amount of cash and, although 6 euros isn't much, it would have made a significant dent in my budget. I wonder if you can order them online?
ReplyDeleteTio means uncle or guy in Spanish but log in Catalan.