Monday, January 25, 2010

A shitting tree trunk

Santa Claus, or Papa Noel, is usually the character people think of when thinking about Christmas. But as they say, Spain IS different. Not only is Three Kings, or Dia de Los Reyes, more celebrated than Christmas, but here in Catalunya, they take it one step further.

Let me introduce to you the cagatio, which literally means the shitting uncle. But in reality, it's a shitting tree trunk and every catalan family has one for christmas. The cagatio is an adorable little tree trunk with a cute smiley face painted on one end. Parents buy a tiny one a month before christmas and gradually replace it with a bigger one so it seems like it has grown. The kids have to feed it of course...I'm assuming by this they mean they water it.

After nochebuena, which is the traditional Spanish Christmas eve dinner, the children are given sticks. They then proceed to hit the cagatio with their sticks until it shits out gifts. How can a tree trunk possibly poop out gifts? Usually, the adults cover the back end of the cagatio with a red cloth and hide the gifts under it. When the children have had their fill of beating the crap out of the poor cagatio, they remove the cloth and reveal all the wonderful gifts that it had crapped out. Now this tradition was much easier back in the day when children received very simple presents. Nowadays, the parents have to be a bit more creative in hiding massive gifts...with a bigger cloth perhaps?

The Catalanes also have another tradition that goes along the lines of pooping. Here they have these incredible, stunningly beautiful, well-crafted Nativity scenes. In it, they have the usual manger, Mary and Joseph, the animals, the shepard. And then there's the caganer, the shitting peasant. It's a figurine of a man, in peasant clothes, squatting with a pipe in his mouth and taking a dump. Was the caganer really present at the birth of Christ? Maybe not, but that would have added a nice humorous kick into the Nativity story, wouldn't you agree?

Makers and sellers of caganers have gotten smart and now they also sell them using real people. They have caganers of politicians like Obama or the Spanish President, Zapatero. They also have them of famous celebrities and football players, like Javier Bardem or Leo Messi.

Now don't ask me how these traditions exactly began. I still can't figure out how the birth of Jesus is related to moving bowels. But whatever reason they have, I'm sure it's a darn good one.

Imachen-Cagatio.jpg


El cagatio



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El caganer



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