Christmas spirit is alive and well in Barcelona.
Hoping to get a few bits and pieces to decorate my friends' flat we made our way to a Christmas market in the forcourt of the majestic cathedral in the barri gotic...all the elements were there for the perfect european christmas experience...a chill in the air, plenty of pretty lights and the gentle scent of pine trees...
What i wasn't expecting were a few elements of tradition the Catalans throw in for good measure (quick geography lesson here for the uninitiated - Barcelona is in an area of spain called Catalunya. People from Barcelona are known as Catalans and have their own language and traditions). The first thing i noticed were countless bunches of eucalyptus leaves being sold from many of the stores. More excited than i probably should have been (let's blame the heady Christmas spirit(s)...) I grabbed my friend's hand and dragged him through the crowd to show him - knocking over a few old ladies as i went....'they're Australian leaves!!!' I yelled. 'What are they doing in Barcelona???' needless to say my friend pulled me away rather quickly. (I've since been told that the leaves are to be given to someone you love to give them luck for the year ahead - at the end of the year they are burned...plus i guess they look pretty and smell nice...)
It seems that the Catalans are more than slightly obsessed with poo. i'm not quite sure if this is just at Christmas or perhaps all year round...but one of their most famous christmas traditions is the 'caganer'...a little figurine that you put in a nativity scene....quite often they are images of well known figures or celebrities...all of them have their pants down in the act of...well...shitting.
and then there is the Tio de Nadal - a hollow log on little legs with a face at one end and a little blanket to keep him warm on the cold winter nights. During December the tradition is to give him a little bit of something to eat each night until christmas. on christmas day the log is ordered to 'poop' and is hit with a stick until he does...out comes all the sweets and nuts etc that have been put inside to be shared with the family....
it may be obsessed with it but Barcelona is definitely not poo at christmas time...wandering the ancient streets with my friends under sparkling christmas lights, Christmas carols floating on the breeze i remembered just how much i love christmas time in europe - Bon Nadal...
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