Are you looking for a new family tradition to start this holiday season? Perhaps I can entice you with a popular Spanish Christmas custom. The Catalan magic of the Tió de Nadal, or what it is popularly refered to as the "Caga tió". Translation? The Pooping Log.
Now you’re probably wondering how you, yes you, can participate in such a glorious family event.
• Get your self a hollow log about 30 centimeters in length, stand it up with two or four sticks, paint a smiling face on the end, stick on a three-dimensional nose and then finish him off with a red sock hat (a barretina as it is known in Catalan).
• On December 8th, the beginning of the Feast of Immaculate Conception, start to give your little tió a little something to “eat” each evening.
• Before you go to sleep cover him with a blankie so he doesn’t get cold at night.
• On Christmas day (or Christmas eve if that’s when you party it up), put the tió part way into the fire place and order him to “poop!” (you don’t need to use the fireplace if you don’t have one).
• To make him “poop” “one beats him with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadel (lyrics below).
• Tió’s poop is generally small items such as candies, nuts, torrons and the occasional dry fig. And that’s not it, “When nothing is left to "poop", it drops a salt herring, a head of garlic, an onion or ‘urinates’.”
• Share all the poop and pee with your family and friends, they are “communal” gifts.
Here is a song of the "caga tió":
caga tió,
caga torró,
avellanes i mató,
si no cagues bé
et daré un cop de bastó.
caga tió!"
Translation:
poop log,
poop turrón,
hazelnuts and cottage cheese,
if you don't poop well,
I'll hit you with a stick,
poop log!
Source
Thanks to Jenna for turning us on to this lovely cultural tradition!
