Catalan Christmas Traditions

I was surprised to find various Christmas markets around the city and two strange wares in particular caught my eye:

The figure of man in traditional Catalan garb... with pants around his knees doing his business and a log with a somewhat cartoonish smile wearing a red scarf and a pointy hat.

Intrigued, I approached one of the market stalls to find out more. Framed by the smiling faces of the logs stacked on the counter in front of her and to her sides, the saleslady was happy to explain:

The logs are known as "el tío" (which can be translated to uncle or dude) that is placed in the family home a few days before Christmas. Children feed them the day's leftovers every evening before going to bed. When the 24th comes around, the whole family gathers around the log and starts beating it with a stick to stimulate the log's bowel movements, which appear in the form of gifts and sweets. Now, the beating doesn't happen haphazardly of course, but to the rhythm of a song quite straightforwardly asking the tío to poop nougat confections (turrones) and other goodies.

"Caga tió
Caga torrons
avellanes i pinyons
no caguis arengades
que són massa salades
caga torrons
fartons i pinyons."

As to the figurine of the man depositing a gift of his own, he is known as the "Caganer" and is usually placed somewhere in the nativity scene, mostly tucked away in a corner, behind a bush or somewhere else deemed appropriate for attending nature's call. Apparently, hiding a Caganer somewhere in the nativity scene ensures fertile farming soil for the year to come and is definitely a fun detail to look for.

The traditional variant is that of a Catalan peasant dressed in red, black and white - but nowadays all kinds of celebrities, stars, political and religious personages can be found doing their business in some inconspicuous corner of a nativity scene.Read more