#80 - Best. Christmas tradition. EVAR.

[reileen]

Tió de Nadal

The Tió de Nadal (roughly "Christmas log"), also known as "Tió" or "Tronca" ("log") and popularly called "Caga tió" (poop log in English), is a mythological character in Catalan mythology relating to a Christmas tradition widespread in Catalonia. A similar tradition exists in other places such as the cachafuòc or soc de Nadal in Occitania, or the Tizón de Nadal or Tronca de Nabidá in Aragon.

The form of the tió de Nadal found in many Catalan homes during the holiday season is a hollow log of about thirty centimetres length, typically standing up on two or four little stick legs with a broad smiling face painted on the higher of the two ends, enhanced by a little red sock hat (a miniature of the traditional Catalan barretina) and often a three-dimensional nose.

Beginning with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), one gives the tió a little bit to "eat" every night and usually covers him with a little blanket so that he will not be cold at night.

On Christmas day or, depending on the particular household, on Christmas Eve, one puts the tió partly into the fireplace and orders it to "shit" (the fire part of this tradition is no longer as widespread as it once was, since many modern homes do not have a fireplace). To make him "shit", one beats him with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadal.

The tió does not drop larger objects, as those are brought by the Three Wise Men. It does leave candies, nuts and torrons. Depending on the part of Catalonia, it may also give out dried figs. When nothing is left to "shit", it drops a salt herring, a head of garlic, an onion or "urinates". What comes out of the tió is a communal rather than individual gift, shared by everyone present.

Man, Spencer's could do some really twisted products with this idea...

-Reileen
and you should be killed by an army of little girls