Holiday Traditions

The Christmas market "fever" has spread throughout Europe to cities that did not originally have them, Barcelona being one of them.  Barcelona's one Christmas market is fairly big but does not compare to the German ones that have so many quality items; it also does not have all the fabulous food stalls (or any at all), but it does have all the Christmas decorations you might need.  This is where we purchased our 4-foot Christmas tree and a couple other evergreen highlights for our apartment.  

Do you see the "logs" with faces and hats under the table in the photo below?  This is called "Tió de Nadal", meaning "Christmas Log" in Catalan; another and more popular name they use is "Caga Tió" or "Poop Log".  The log has two stick legs at the front to prop it up, with a happy face painted at that end and a red Catalan barretina hat.  From December 8th the log is "fed" peels of fruit and other varied foods and cared for by the children until December 24th.  The tradition is that the kids sing the short Caga Tió song while hitting the log with a stick.  After singing, the kids yell "Caga Tió!", telling the log to poo.  They then leave the room and pray for presents while the parents put candy and sometimes small presents under a blanket at the rear end of the log, which Caga Tió has apparently pooped out.  Lovely, yes?!  This tradition is centuries old when fireplaces were the central part of the home, and the log was burned at the end of the ceremony (and sometimes is today).  

OK, I have another curious Catalan custom for you.  In almost every nativity scene for the past couple hundred years, you will find an additional figure called a caganer, most politely translated as "the defecator".  He is typically posted inconspicuously and not too close to the holy family...behind a tree, under a bridge, etc.  The legend goes that if a countryman did not put a caganer in his nativity scene, the year would not be good for collecting vegetables.  Caganers are squatting, clothed, and have rear ends exposed with their deposit on the ground behind/under them.  In recent years, caganers have been created to represent famous people...politicians, soccer players, etc.  It is actually considered an honor (at least to the Catalan people) to have your figure made into a caganer!  Below I took a photo of some being sold at the Christmas market in Barcelona.   

Our Spanish teachers, Christian and Carmen (our new teacher since the end of October), put on a mini celebration for us and told us all about the holiday traditions of Catalonians and Spaniards.  Instead of champagne, we had chocolate milk!  :)

Simply walking down the alley (near our apartment) in the evening on our way to dinner, 

with popular paper holiday stars you see all over Europe.

Here is a big nativity scene in a square in Barcelona.  Can you find the caganer?

A close up...

The boys' dance studio had their annual holiday performance where they collect LOTS of toys to give to needy children by using it as an entrance fee.  There were hundreds of people at the performance!!  This is Irene, the founder of the studio, before the performance began.  (I recorded the boys' dances, so I didn't get any photos of them performing.)

Stayed tuned for our holiday travels...