We went shopping in the local mall over the weekend, trying to sort some final presents before Christmas creeps up on us. The decorations have been up everywhere for a good month already in our corner of Spain, the trees decorated, baubles glinting in the fairy lights, tinsel sparkling, Santa Claus figures dangling from the ceilings. It’s almost like being in the States, or back in the UK.
Yet Catalunya has its idiosyncratic traditions too. One – less common in Barcelona but found across the rest of the region, especially in rural areas – is tió de Nadal (the Christmas log).
They can be bought in various sizes, but essentially it is a hollow tree log, commonly raised on one end by short stick legs, and with a painted face and stuck-on nose on the front (I know, but bear with me on this). The tió is ‘fed’ every night in the run up to Christmas, and then on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, depending on your preference, it is beaten with a stick to a special accompanying song and ordered to poo out its treats of sweets or nuts and the like.
It may sound somewhat bizarre, but is – or so I am told by the teachers at my daughter’s school – magical for the children.
Meanwhile, across Spain the big present-giving celebration is not December 25 as in North America and some other parts of Europe, but Epiphany (January 6). For this is the day when the Three Kings (los Reyes) came to see Jesus in the stable, bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Nevertheless, Santa Claus and Christmas Day gifts are slowly encroaching into the Spanish calendar – the power, I guess, of Disney and Coca Cola!
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