How to Care For Your Caga Tió (Tió de Nadal, Catalan Christmas Log)

If you want presents on Christmas Eve, you’ve gotta do some work: Give your tió de nadal some tender lovin’ care. And if you’ve never heard of him… The tió de nadal is a log with a face on it. And he poops presents for Catalan children on Christmas Eve. So if you have a…

The Caganer, Another Catalan Christmas Crapper

We’re in a poopy mess here these holidays. Here’s a curious Catalan Christmas tradition that has to do with the act of defecation (other than the caga tió). And that’s the caganer, the “crapper”, or bluntly, the “shitter”. It’s a ceramic statuette of a person or fictional character squatting over a pile of poop. And it’s meant…

Balthazars of Spain, stop doing blackface.

I’m always curious to see what kinds of blackface I’m going to come across around Three Kings’ Day. So many blackface Balthazars make their appearance at kids’ schools and Three Kings’ Day parades across Spain. While many authentically black people do play Balthazar, not every city or pueblo in Spain has access to a black actor…

A Spanish Lesson: Body, Panty, Leotardo, and More

When I was pregnant, I started to make a list of newborn clothes that I’d need before my baby girl’s arrival. My mother-in-law (who’s Spanish) asked me if my daughter had enough bodys. Well course she’d have a body. A cute little baby body. I’m sure she didn’t mean to say cuerpo, the Spanish word for “body”. After some…

Barcelona’s Non-Traditional Nativity Scene: Yay or Nay?

My family and I arrived at Plaça Sant Jaume to check out an awesome annual Christmas tradition in Barcelona. That would be the city’s official pessebre vivent, or living Nativity scene. It’s usually an extensive and elaborate pastoral landscape framing a grand moment in history — the birth of Jesus 2,000 years ago. We were looking forward to…