… which are certainly different from ours! The good-natured vendor in Palma de Mallorca couldn’t explain to us the significance of the smiling logs or crouching figures, but he seemed happy to write down the names of both for us in Spanish. I couldn’t wait to investigate further. We had bought a crouching pooping Sponge Bob Square Pants and a similarly engaged Mario for the grandsons, who are solidly into their potty humor phase. Regardless of the deeper meaning we were sure they would enjoy the concept of both characters pooping.
It turns out that the crouching figures are known as “Caganer,” or the Poopers. The Catalonian tradition is to place them in the nativity in a somewhat hidden location; the children try to find the pooping figures in the scene. No word on what the prize may be to the lucky finder, but these figures are reportedly everyone’s favorite nativity figures. And is is unlucky not to have at least one caganer in your nativity! The significance is a little murky but had something to do originally with ensuring fertility and abundance for the crops.
Caganers today come in every possible variety – it’s an honor as a celebrity to have a caganer designed in your likeness. We saw the Pope, nuns, footballers, Santa, Queen Elizabeth, even a person designed to look like a Gaudi mosaic – with an appropriate mosaic poop! And we also saw another type of figure relieving themselves …
Rather horrified by this tradition, we checked out the little logs, called “Caga Tio.” Caga is actually pronounced “Ca-Ca” in Spanish. Think about that... It turns out that the Caga Tio tradition is even stranger than the Caganer.
Caga Tio is a substitute for Santa Claus or Father Christmas – with a few important differences. “Tio” means “Uncle” - and it also means log; “Caga” means “poop” so Caga Tio translates to “Poop Log.” Parents bring home a Caga Tio, and the children look after him from the 8th of December until Christmas Eve. They feed him orange peel and turron, a nougat candy, every evening, and cover his rear end with a nice red blanket to keep him warm. Clever parents swap out small Caga Tios for ever larger ones to show the kids their work is paying off – the log is actually growing! And they feed him well because - the more they feed him, the more presents he will “poop out.”
But he apparently needs a little persuasion. So on Christmas Eve, after weeks of feeding Caga Tio and making sure he is warm under his blanket – ahh, so sweet -- the kids are given a stick or cane to beat Caga Tio with. While they’re beating him, they sing a little song that goes something like this: “Poop log, poop turron, hazelnuts and cottage cheese. If you don’t poop well, I’ll hit you with a stick, poop log.” The parents place wrapped presents in the blanket for the children to find. Here’s our tiny caga tio … we will not be beating him!
Doesn’t this put you in the Christmas spirit? Don’t take it from me, do your own research. These customs are apparently widespread in Spain, and extend to parts of Italy and Portugal. Even more amazing, they’ve been around since the 17th century! And this is why we travel…. !
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