Tales, Treats, Tricks & Traditions
A few Christmases ago I was in Barcelona and I came across a strange Catalan yuletide tradition that I wanted to tell you about to see, well… if you will actually believe me.
But it also inspired me to look into what other odd festive traditions there might be around the world, because after all, if you believe this first one - then like me, you will now believe anything.
Walking around Barcelona visiting lots of Christmas fairs I noticed a distinct lack of that big bearded, round bellied and jolly fellow we think of as the Father of Christmas, and instead, there seemed to just be lots and lots of logs - with happy faces painted on them. Apparently in Catalonia presents aren’t delivered by Santa on his sleigh - they have an entirely different method of transportation. Santa leaves the distribution of presents in this part of Spain to this jolly bit of wood called the ‘Tió de Nadal’, which translates to ‘The Christmas Log’, but he's also known more widely as ‘Caga Tió’ which means, how shall I say this nicely, the ‘defecating log’. This is a big clue about what's going to happen and yet, I still don’t think you will believe me. The tradition goes like this: The Tió de Nadal is a hollow log, with stick legs, a red hat and a big smile that comes to live with you at the beginning of December. It's the children's responsibility to keep him warm with a blanket and feed him well with fruit and nuts (good fibrous foods that help with digestion), and if they do this well then on Christmas Eve everybody gets together and the children beat the log with a stick (I know, not very nice way to treat a house guest) and they sing a song that roughly translates to this: "Poop log, Poop nougats, Hazelnuts and mato cheese, if you don't poop well, I'll hit you with a stick, Poop log!". After this musical encouragement and quite a few bashes with the stick, Tió de Nadal feels his bowels move and he, I’m sure you’ve guessed by now - excretes treats. Once he's pooped out all his presents and candy he's no longer useful so they throw him on the fire to keep the house warm.