Christmas Tradition

[Wahalla]

I think we should popularise this Catalunian Tradition....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Caganer

[Tropicana]

Absolutely disgusting. Definitely sliding into the cesspool or literally sliding into the pit latrine would be more accurate.

I can't believe some of the stuff that get's posted on here without objection yet some people including some mods consistently object to some of my topics. Unbelievable!

[kia027]

The tradition sounds tasteless but when I read their reasons..

• Tradition.
• Perceived humour.
• A fun spectacle, especially for children.
• The Caganer, by creating feces, is fertilizing the Earth. According to the ethnographer, Joan Amades, it was a "customary figure in pessebres [i.e. nativity scenes] in the 19th century, because people believed that this deposit [symbolically] fertilized the ground of the pessebre, which became fertile and ensured the pessebre for the following year, and with it, the health of body and peace of mind required to make the pessebre, with the joy and happiness brought by Christmas near the hearth. Placing this figurine in the pessebre brought good luck and joy and not doing so brought adversity."^[5]
• The Caganer represents the equality of all people: regardless of status, race, or gender, everyone defecates.
• Increased naturalism of an otherwise archetypal (thus idealised) story, so that it is more believable, more real and can be taken more seriously.
• The idea that God will manifest himself when he is ready, without regard for whether we human beings are ready or not.
• The Caganer reinforces the belief that the infant Jesus is God in human form, with all that being human implies.
• The character introduces a healthy amount of religious doubt to test one's faith.
• A humorous allusion to the Spanish proverb (in translation), "Dung is no saint, but where it falls it works miracles."

Not something I would place in a nativity scene if I had a creche but hey their tradition

The Caganer can also be found in other European cultures, either as an important or a minor local tradition:

• In France: Père la Colique ("Father Cholic").^[9] In France this figure seems to date from the 1930s or 40s.^[10]
• In Murcia, the region just south of the Valencian Country in Spain (where they are called cagones)^[11]
• The Naples area, where it is known as cacone or pastore che caca^[11]
• Portugal, where they are known as cagões^[4][11][12]

Possible translations of the caganer concept into other languages include:

• In the Dutch / Flemish: Kakkers / Schijterkes ("Pooper"/"Little Pooper")
• In German: Choleramännchen or Hinterlader ("Little Cholera Man" or "Breech-loader")

That boys and girls is our cultural lesson of the hour on Jamaicans.com People are weird

[Wahalla]

What is a stable full of ? besides animals, hay ?

However there is the added perspective of how animals were kept in some traditional houses in Spain... humans on first floor, animals on the ground floor.... and to do ur biznis was a hole on the prefirery of the building....