The Christmas crapper!

Yesterday we went for a stroll in town at around 7:30 when "the husband" came home from work. All the shops are open until at least 8pm everyday (except weekends) and the centre looks really lovely with all the Christmas' lights on.
There also a Christmas market in the Rambla, the mail local street, where they sell everything, from trees to wraping paper.

One of the tradition for Christmas in Spain as well as in the Latin American countries is to have a "Belén" or Nativity set build at home. Everybody has one and their style, cost and size can vary greatly. Of course, in the market there's loads of stands selling the traditional figures in all sort of materials, from clay to plastic, hand made or mass produced in China, traditional figures, modernist or naive, you can find whatever takes you fancy for this year Nativity set. Plus all sort of background material, such as moss for the pretend grass, plants, animals, even running water fountains, amazing stuff.

In the market, one figure in particular cought my eye because I've never seen it before. It's called the "caganet" o "caganer" (the link will take you to the definition in English and pictures in Wikipedia) a word that can be translated from the Catalan as the Christmas crapper because that's exactly what's he's doing. Look at the pictures!
I've been told that the caganet is placed in a corner of the Nativity and, no surprise there, it's a favourite of all children who take great pleasure to find it. Usually the caganet is an anonymous peasant dressed in traditional clothes, but it's also can be a famous people such as member of the royal house, politicians and even the Pope.

Here I found a picture of one that looks like president Bush.

I've even found one that you can print and then cut and make yourself to add to your own Nativity. I can send it to you by e-mail so you can make one for yourself if you're so inclined. Just let me know.

I'm experiencing some technical problems posting pictures today, so I'm going to keep on trying to post them until I can add a couple of them. It's definitely a sight to see.