Posted on 12/21/2006 5:32:54 PM PST by LibWhacker
Strange
Pooping Peasant Popular in Spain
1 day ago Pooping Peasant Popular in Spain
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The Associated Press
Dec 20, 2006 4:16 PM (1 day ago)
BARCELONA, Spain - The Virgin Mary. The three kings. A few wayward sheep. These are the figures one expects to find in a traditional Christmas nativity scene. Not a smartly dressed peasant squatting behind a rock with his rear-end exposed.
Yet statuettes of "El Caganer," or the great defecator in the Catalan language, can be found in nativity scenes, and increasingly on the mantelpieces of collectors, throughout Spain's northeastern Catalonia region, where for centuries symbols of defecation have played an important role in Christmas festivities.
During the holiday season, pastry shops around Catalonia sell sweets shaped like feces, and on Christmas Eve Catalan children beat a hollow log, called the tio, packed with holiday gifts, singing a song that urges it to defecate presents out the other end.
These traditions, in the case of the caganer dating back as far as the 17th century, come from an agricultural society where defecation was associated with fertility and health.
While the traditional caganer is a red-capped peasant, more modern renditions have gained popularity in recent years.
Is this the same one that poops on our lettuce & spinach here?
Bookmark
If the log lets the little Spaniards down, I'll brew up something special for them.
I take this more as a commentary on the Spanish.
Hey, that no cookie!
This is a new form of the "Yule Log"...Thank you I will be here all week.
Actually, I hadn't heard of this particular figure, but it's not uncommon for traditional celebrations of the Nativity to include crude figures. The classic instance is "The Second Shepherds Play." Shepherds were traditionally known to be rude and clownish, which simply increases the wonder that God would include them among those who welcomed Jesus at His birth.
After all, it's a fallen world, and Jesus came into it to save sinners and idiots, not just the cultured and elegant few.
"I thought it was the rain that fell in Spain."
eh, that happens mainly on the plains.
Boy, I must've led a sheltered childhood, lol! In my entire life, I've never seen any crude Nativity scenes, except ones set up by atheists to mock Christ.
I might be an old fogey but I find Spain's obsession with feces more than just a little strange. Those people are just flat out SICKOS.
So there's an historical source for South Park's Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo?
http://www.southparkstudios.com/show/display_episode.php?season=1&id1=110&id2=10
This is not anti-Christian. The "caganer" is a typical figure in Nativity scenes from Catalonia in northern Spain. In the Spanish Nativity Scene (called a "belén," which means Bethlehem), there are many figures doing all sorts of things, playing traditional instruments, herding sheep, doing traditional trades, etc. The "caganer" was a figure hidden in the bushes, and basically put there to entertain children. It would be like looking for the outhouse in an American "Victorian Christmas" diorama.
We should quit taking things so seriously. It makes us look ridiculous and also makes life pretty grim.
LOL! Call him the Caganer (which means ****er in Catalan, a regional Iberian Peninsula language) and nobody will ever know the difference.
By George, I think you've got it.
I'm not saying there aren't some parochial Christian sects that celebrate Christmas with such scatalogical symbols. Not saying that at all. However, I am saying that the MSM's fixation on anything that makes Christians look ridiculous is driven by their anti-Christian agenda. There is no other explanation for it, and part of the problem we have is people who don't recognize it for what it is.
scatological
The 17th Century War on Christmas crowd?
Pooping Caganer
***I might be an old fogey but I find Spain's obsession with feces more than just a little strange. Those people are just flat out SICKOS.***
About 50 years my dad took us on a trip to Juarez, Mexico.
One of the things sold there was what looked like a plate with two crossed pieces of pointed mud. My dad said it was not mud.
It just makes you want to be a European, doesn't it? The feces pastries and defecating log...
Did they make this up after the Muslims were running around their country, or before?
I will tell you what we did. WE grabbed the toilet paper and pinched a loaf around a building and behind some bushes and trees.
These figures seem to be about my buddy and me! We were out there having a blast in Spain with those folks in the AF and doing everything an ugly American may think of doing.
And now I found out our crazy asses have been honored for years!! My heart is warmed by this Christmas present:):) Feliz Navidad, amigos (cabrones)!
Actually, I think this was around long before rosy pink American backsides were seen there...but the general message is the same. It was considered funny then, and now it's considered so funny that they make "caganer" figures of political figures, movie stars, etc. Not for Nativity scenes, of course. Just for the heck of it.
With Zapatero, Spain is going to the dogs...
Like the incarnation of God on earth? Yeah, hell, what's the big deal.
I don't believe it, it reminds me of the scene in Caddyshack where the Baby Ruth is floating in the pool.
You know, there is a civilization moving here that may have a need for a burning cross on their lawns at some future point. And they will burn it down on their own. Blacks, whites, Hispanics/Latinos will build those crosses for them together. We have our own civilization. The funny part is the other civilization won't know what they are doing!
LOLTAD
You know, there is a civilization moving here that may have a need for a burning cross on their lawns at some future point. And they will burn it down on their own. Blacks, whites, Hispanics/Latinos will build those crosses for them together. We have our own civilization. The funny part is the other civilization won't know what they are doing!
I think I get it. It's to make fun of people that ask for it!
Ha! We just had a Phantom on board my ship over Thanksgiving. He struck the cargo office, leaving his mark in the bucket for coffee grounds.
In other words,
"The reign in Spain falls mainly on the plain."
IknowIknow, it's a sickness.
A once great nation seeks further into decadence and irrelevance. The European story writ small in a corner of Europe that resisted the rot longer than most. But the rot is here now. With a vengeance. Their film, their art, their social mores reveal sensibilities abhorrent to the wholesome imagination. On the plus side, they are not having children and will die out altogether early in the next century. Spain will be one of Islam's first conquests in Europe. Incredibly, it might be an improvement.
Well, anybody who speaks Spanish or Portuguese probably already knows about it and is not clutching their head in horror.
"During the holiday season, pastry shops around Catalonia sell sweets shaped like feces, and on Christmas Eve Catalan children beat a hollow log, called the tio, packed with holiday gifts, singing a song that urges it to defecate presents out the other end. "
You just CAN'T make this stuff up. The appeal of this particular "tradition" completely escapes me.
Senor Hanky?
The Phantom ****ter was also working his magic back in '75-'78 in the woods of West Germany. I, opps, I mean he, was not going to dig a latrine after a jump and set-up at 3 A.M.
Someone over at Fark called it 'Feces Navidad'.
Just don't bring up Sinter Klass and Black Pete.
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