Christmas Crapper
December 15th, 2006
Strange Christmas traditions in Barcelona….the: CAGA TÍO!
Christmas time in Barcelona is wonderful, the weather is warm enough to take your time walking around the city, the city is full of Christmas lights and decorations, and the Ramblas is always animated with street artists…there is a very good atmosphere!
I was walking around the Cathedral district, with my boyfriend….very romantic…when we arrived at the main square. In front of the church, there was a street market selling Christmas decorations and a strange statue called: …TIO DE NAVIDAD!
I was lost in my “Christmas dream” when I saw children hitting something and shouting: “Caga tío, Caga tío!” (poo guy, poo guy!).
What a shock!!!
So I had the pleasure to see an original tradition that is still very much alive….a really strange habit! I tried to understand what I had seen…a few hours later I read on the Internet why and what they were asking to poo!!
On Christmas day or, depending on the particular household, on Christmas eve, you put the ‘tió’ partly into the fireplace and order it to “poo”. To make him “poo”, you beat him with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadal.
The tió does not drop larger objects (of course!! Can you imagine?), it does leave candies, nuts and torrons. When nothing is left to “poo”, it drops a salt herring, a head of garlic or onions. What comes out of the ‘tió’ is a communal rather than individual gift, shared by everyone present.
After hitting it softly with a stick during the song it is then hit harder as people say “¡caga tió!”. Then somebody puts his hand under the blanket and takes a gift. The gift is opened and then the song begins again.
Here is a song of the “caga tío”:
Caga tío, (poo, log!)
caga turró, (poo torrons,)
avellanes i mató,( hazelnuts and cheese,)
si no cagues bé (if you don’t poo well)
et daré un cop de bastó (I’ll give you a blow with a stick.)
¡caga tió! (poo, log!)
And this is not all!! While I was looking for some information about “Caga Tío” I also found another strange tradition!! There exists a statue called: “Caganer” . Translated from Catalan to English to mean “defecator”, and that is exactly what this little statue is doing— defecating! The exact origin of the Caganer is lost, but the tradition has existed since the 18th century. Originally, the Caganer was portrayed wearing traditional Catalan wear. Now you can find every kind of version, even a Bush one!
The statue is often tucked away in some corner of the Nativity. So I ask myself, is there a reason for placing a man who is in the act of excreting solid waste from his posterior in the Christmas nativity? The ‘Caganer’, by creating faeces, is fertilizing the Earth….what a romantic and old fashioned reason I thought!
These are the things that you have to know, to really love a place - the traditions! I wish a good ‘Caganet’ to everybody!
Eugenia Accardo
This entry was posted on Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 8:58 am and is filed under Festivities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 18th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
where can I get a Caganer? I’ve been wanting one for our nativity set for years, but Froogle doesn’t list any one selling them.
December 18th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Eugenia, are you certain that “tio” in this case is translated as log, rather than as Uncle in a general sense of the term? My source for all things Catalan is now dead, so I can’t ask him, but I’m pretty curious, as last time I took any Spanish with an instructor favoring Catalan, Tio and Tia were Uncle and Aunt, respectively…
Anyway, great article.
December 19th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Hi everybody!! For the person who is looking for a “caganer”, you can find them in front of the cathedral in Barcelona. In fact, there is a christmas market called “Mercat de Santa Llúcia” just in front of the cathedral where you can find whatever you want related to Christmas.
Alberto
December 19th, 2006 at 10:48 am
“Hi will,
I have been living in Barcelona for quite a long time and I am sure, “Tío” has two meanings: Uncle and also “Guy”, which is a colloquial way to call a person, like “Guy” in English.
This is not just Catalan, (Catalans say “Tiu”), but also in general Spanish…”Hola tío que tal?” It is a common way to say Hello!
… and Catalan…is still alive…children learn Catalan at school like their first language!
Anyway I am happy that you enjoyed my article.”
December 19th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
You can indeed get the Christmas crappers in front of the Sagrada Familia.
There are a fair few Christmas stalls that sell them (including the one in the picture). Just be sure to keep an eye on your bag/wallet if you’re there!
They’re far more visual than the pictures reveal.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
“Tió” means for sure “log”, Spanish “tío” (”uncle” and “dude”) has nothing to do here.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
It’s actually Caga Tió with an accent of the ‘o’. It is in fact pooping log. Tío with the accent over the ‘i’ means Uncle. In Catalan, Tió means log. It doesn’t help that there is also a Caganer which then easily makes the whole Tío/Tió thing an easy mistake.
This year Caganers have aparently been banned from public nativity scenes. I suspect they will still be there just a little more hidden. Catalans are far more stubborn to compromise their traditions.
It should also be said that Caga is a more crude form of saying Poo. A more acurate translation to english would be shit.
December 9th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
I am catalan, born and raised and I speak both Spanish and Catalan. Tió with the accent on the ó is the name of the log. Tío, with the accent on the í in Spanish means uncle and in a very coloquial manner means guy.
December 18th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I’ve been looking for a Caganer for ages (I feel it would make a most interesting Christmas gift) but I cannot actually make it to Barcelona to buy one.
I don’t suppose (I loath to ask) if anyone knows if they’re at all available over the internet?