There’s a Guy Pooping in My Nativity Scene
On cultural differences
The bare-bottomed figurine that brings good luck, image via Teresa Grau Ros on Flickr
There is a guy pooping in my Nativity Scene, right next to baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
And that’s not just my Nativity Scene. Anyone in Catalonia would look confused if they weren’t able to find a guy pooping in a Nativity Scene.
Maybe you knew about this, maybe you didn’t.
There’s a very funny YouTube video I share every Christmas, so people (kind of) understand what’s going on at home:
Whether you’ve watched the video or not, the summary is that, in Catalonia, where I was born, we have a very particular tradition where we put a guy pooping, called “El Caganer” or “The Shitter” right in the nativity scene.
Why you may ask?
Well, nobody knows for certain. There are theories, but nothing is well established.
Apparently, we started doing this around the 17th or 18th Century. Some believe it means fertility and prosperity for the land for that year.
But no well-respected Catalan would ignore this important part of Christmas, as some say it would bring us bad luck.
Over the years though, I’ve come to understand that this rarity transcends the oddity and goes to the cultural differences realm. And it has a lot of cultural significance for us!
Not surprisingly, we have another tradition called the “Caga Tió”, or the “Shitting Log”.
This is the one I made for My Older Child the Year that we Spent Christmas in Colombia
The Caga tió is just a log with a face on it that kids give food to from early December. So basically they leave food right in front of this figurine, and adults remove the blood leaving some crumbs to pretend the figurine ate it all.
It wears the same hat you can see in “El Caganer,” a traditional hat that Catalan farmers used to wear all the time.
Even Dalí wore it to public events.
World-recognized Catalan Artist Salvador Dalí wearing a traditional Catalan hat.
On Christmas day, kids kick the Caga Tió with sticks so that it brings sweets and little presents. Similar presents to what you can find in Christmas stockings here in the US.
People think it symbolizes the fertility of the land. But again, nothing is known for sure.
See the pattern?
We relate “defecation” with fertility and health.
This is something that surprises my Colombian husband all the time. How it comes that Catalans have such an obsession with “poop”?
And we do, I have to admit.
There even was a TV show on Catalan television (TV3) discussing types of poop and what they said about your general health. It was a hit!
You don’t need to convince us of the gut-brain connection. We are well aware of it.
But beyond that, we openly talk about poop, and a good number of folk jokes involve poop (well, and farts).
And although it may come to you as a cultural shock, it is just one of the things that can make some people particular in some way.
How many times do we fail to understand intentions when talking to someone with a different background?
Not just another country, but maybe someone from another State.
Where we come from, and the culture we grew up in, shapes how we perceive the world.
Now, I know better than talking about poop all the time, and you will seldom hear me say a peep about it under normal circumstances.
But when I get together with my Catalan friends, we certainly laugh hysterically for an unreasonable amount of time at some poop joke or reference.
I hope I, at least, got a smile on your faces… Happy Holidays!
