Here in Spain, the people do things just a little bit differently than we do in the U.S. Then, you add in the traditions of Catalunya and things get even more interesting!!!
Christmas:
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| My host family and me with "Caga Tió" on Christmas morning. |
The first of the festivities is Christmas. However, the people here do not open presents on Christmas Day. My host family and I had lunch with the entire family, on my host Dad’s side, on Christmas Day and the following day was proceeded by lunch at my host aunt’s house.
This is not to say that there are no presents opened on December 25th. A tradition here in Catalunya is called, “Caga Tió.” In English this means, “pooping log.” Sounds weird right?? Well, I thought so too! In the end though, I think it’s actually really adorable!
What happens is that you have a log decorated with a face, a hat (typical Catalunya style), and completed with a small blanket to keep him warm. The children believe that he is really alive and that if you feed him well he will “poop” out lots of presents for you! So, you feed him things (much like we leave out cookies for Santa) and then on December 24th and/or 25th you get out sticks and hit the log to make it poop.
*Before we hit the log, I must add that you need to heat up your stick/pole in the oven (note: don’t actually turn oven on… not a good idea with small children! haha). You must do this because a hot pole will hurt the log more, thus, adding to it’s production of more presents.
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| Heating up our poles. |
Also, while the kids are in the kitchen heating up their poles and constantly asking if it’s time to go and hit the log, the parents are placing presents underneath blankets placed over the “Caga Tió” that will be removed after the beating and singing takes place.
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| We all got hats are one of our "Caga Tió" presents. |
This process of heating up poles, hitting/singing, and opening presents continues until the log poops out potatoes.
*Lyrics to the song you sing while hitting the log:
Catalan: Caga Tió, ametlles i turró, si no cagues bé, un cop te donaré, TÉ, TÉ, TÉ!
English: Pooping log, almonds and turró(type of sweet), if you don’t poop good(or enough presents), I will hit you. Take it, take it, take it!
I must say that as I write this it seems completely ridiculous. Whereas in real life, it is
just so much fun and rather adorable.
Reis/Cavalcada:
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| "Patge." |
The reason that the people here don’t open presents on Christmas morning is because instead of Santa Clause bringing presents, the Three Kings bring them. However, the Three Kings do not arrive to give Jesus his gifts until a few days after his birth. Meaning, that keeping with tradition, the people here open presents on the 6th of January. This is also another family day filled with lunches and dinners.
This day is much like our Christmas in this way, they just do it a bit later and Santa is not the one bringing presents. (The people also eat incredible amounts of food in the holiday season seeing as how they celebrate not one or two days of holidays with family, but have at least four days of eating if you count the two different sides of the family.)
Along with Reis, comes the Cavalcada. This is a parade the night before (Jan. 5th) that includes the Reis (the white king, the red king, and the black king). The streets in my town on this night were filled with an estimated +50,000 people who had shown up to collect candy and hand cards to the Kings. Younger children are also allowed to climb the floats and hand-deliver their cards to the Kings, while other older children hand their cards to the helpers who then hand them to the King on that particular float.
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| In the parade for the "Reis" of Mataró! |
One of my favorite things about this was the fact that I actually got to participate in the parade. I was a “patge” for the White King. A “patge” I would loosely say is somewhat like a Christmas Elf, therefore, helps the Kings.
The White King is always the first one and is followed by the Red King and ultimately the Black King. It was so much fun to get to walk down the streets of Mataró, meanwhile it seemed the entire city had shown up to see the Kings and hand cards to the other “patges” and me.
In addition to this, it seems everyone is in search of candy and is extremely overjoyed when showered upon by candy. Or if not showered upon, yelling for candy. Overall, something I will never forget and feel extremely lucky to have gotten to do!
New Year:
New Year is yet another thing that is celebrated differently here in Spain. My host family and I went to a friend’s house to celebrate. At midnight everyone watches the television program in their region… We watched the Catalunya one.
All have some sort of bell tower and when the bell tolls, the people eat a series of 12 grapes in correspondence with the 12 tolls. After, everyone jumps up and gives everyone two kisses, one on eat cheek, and wishes them a happy new year.
After midnight, around 1 a.m. everyone goes out to party. All of the kids 16 and older mostly go to discotecas, while others go to parties organized by local organizations or companies. I went to the discoteca with my friends from school and my younger host sisters went to a party at the theater in which we all participate. Around 6 a.m. the people start to slowly go home and this pretty much sums up the New Year.
Random:
Other than all of this, everything has continued to follow the normal schedule that has been put in place. School, musical, and flamenco are all things that I find “normal” now. My host family and I are all comfortable with each other and they treat me like one of them. It is really nice to actually feel like part of their family. It was hard to imagine feeling that way before coming here, but now that I am here, it’s just something that happened.
I also go into Barcelona whenever I can and over Christmas Break I had many opportunities to go in with my AFS friends and explore. It is an incredible city and have fallen in love with it!
