Holy Crap

I had read about them. We even had a family competition. Who ever saw one first would win. We were all looking for “Caganers”. The Caganer is a Christmas character in Barcelona. He is the man in the creche with his pants at his ankles taking a dump.

At the beginning of December shops started to carry little statues of caganers. Small ones, big ones and even thematic caganers from Obama to Sponge Bob…even the Pope. Each statue is different but each one has a bare butt and includes a pile of crap.

As if that wasn’t enough poop for one holiday, Christmas in Barcelona also includes the Caga Tio or the Crapping Log. It is small log with a smiling face and cute little hat. Starting on December 8 children feed the log and then on Christmas Eve it is ordered to poop. When that doesn’t happen (it is a log after all) the children beat it with a stick singing a traditional song. When the children are distracted the log then craps out Christmas presents.

This is serious business. Jacob’s Spanish class even took a field trip to the Christmas market see the Caganers and Caga Tios for sale. His class was taught the song and even acted it out…they beat a girl with a stick while singing the song. Here is the video.

It turns out that there is a long history to this tradition. Its roots are in the rural culture and the importance of the fertility of the land, cycle of life, importance of the soil, blah, blah…

For our family however it led to endless amusement. We bought our own which we added to the children’s gingerbread scenes and we excitedly gave one to my brother who suffered intestinal distress while visiting. We also gave Mike's brother a caganer magnet. Kind of takes getting a "crappy gift" to a whole new level.

Much of our amusement is the result of culture shock (although Mike says that poop is always funny). It was something completely new and so it felt weird and silly. Spain is a place of long held traditions and people are attached to those traditions. Living here for a year is allowing us to experience those traditions, learn a little about each one and understand that even in the era of the internet, culture really is different all over the world.

And different is fun even when its crappy.