Why can't our Christmas traditions be as good as those in Catalonia?


The Tió de Nadal, also known simply as Tió, or Tronca ("log") and popularly called Caga tió ("shitting log"), is a character in Catalan mythology relating to a Christmas tradition widespread in Catalonia.

It's usually a hollow log of about thirty centimetres length, often standing up on two or four little stick legs with a broad smiling face painted on the higher of the two ends, enhanced by a little red sock hat (a miniature of the traditional Catalan barretina) and a nose.

Beginning with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), one gives the tió a little bit to "eat" every night and usually covers him with a little blanket so that he will not be cold at night.

On Christmas day or, depending on the particular household, on Christmas Eve, one puts the tió partly into the fireplace and orders it to defecate; the fire part of this tradition is no longer as widespread as it once was, since many modern homes do not have a fireplace. To make it defecate one beats the tió with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadal.

The tradition says that before beating the tió all the kids have to leave the room and go to another place of the house to pray asking for the tió to deliver a lot of presents. This makes the perfect excuse for the relatives to do the trick and put the presents under the blanket while the kids are praying.

The tió does not drop larger objects, as those are considered to be brought by the Three Wise Men. It does leave candies, nuts and torrons. Depending on the part of Catalonia, it may also give out dried figs. When nothing is left to "shit", it drops a salt herring, a head of garlic, an onion or "urinates". What comes out of the tió is a communal rather than individual gift, shared by everyone present.

There are songs:

Caga tió song:
"Caga tió,
caga torró,
avellanes i mató,
si no cagues bé
et daré un cop de bastó.
caga tió!"

Which translates to:

Shit log,
shit nougats (turrón),
hazelnuts and cottage cheese,
if you don't shit well,
I'll hit you with a stick,
shit log!

An alternate version goes something like this:

"Caga tió,
tió de Nadal,
no caguis arengades,
que són massa salades
caga torrons
que són més bons!"

Which means:

Shit log,
log of Christmas,
don't shit herrings,
which are too salty,
shit nougats (turrón)
which are much better!

(info nicked from Wikipedia)

So the news this week:

Tom Dayley comes out.
Bear shit found in woods.
Pope: Catholic.

Have I read somewhere that there is some jet interchangeability between some Mikuni carburettors and the Solexes used on A Series, or did I dream it? Outwardly the main jet in a motorcycle Mikuni I've got *looks* the same as a 2CV secondary jet - I just haven't had a chance to dig one out to compare yet.

It wasn't a dream I read it to viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4756&p=101244&hilit=jets#p101244 This is the discussion on the forum

Cool, thought so. The one fitted is a bit small according to the figures I have for the MZ, but it looks as though the secondary jet out of the Dyane carb in the shed should be perfect. This carb was apparently used successfully on an MZ previously, so I'll give it a go, first. Don't know why I couldn't find that when I did a search!

Finally! It will be a shame to see them go, as a piece of vehicle history, but they've been pretty redundant for a while, and it's rankled somewhat having to pay for a replacement in the past when one's been nicked!

The DD payment option sounds quite good, top.

Woke up to 4 to 5 inches of snow this morning. Conditions are quite nasty, but fun I can't see out of any windows as there's frozen snow and ice covering the outer glass. The inter-island ferry service is suspended so I'm stuck on Unst! Lol!! Wasn't looking to go off-island anyway.

Just came on-line to check if it was a bit breezy where you are
Glad you're ok.

Had a thaw overnight. Hasn't been good up here, car has been stuck outside the house and I've been unable to get to work. Put some photos on Facebook and had a few folk taking the piss that it was "only a bit of snow" or "that's frost". Personally, I'd like to see how'd they manage. The windchill was -22 and there's been a couple of real Shetlanders who have ended up in a ditch in a 4x4. There's been no mention on the BBC but they've happily shown the same weather conditions half way round the world in the US. Hmmmmmmmm...