Caga Tió — Catalonian holiday log tradition

The Caga Tió is a rustic holiday tradition in Spain. Parents find a small log and paint it into a character that children keep and feed as a pet. Successively larger painted logs are secretly substituted later to make the character grow. On Christmas, the children gather around and beat the log with sticks until it pretend-poops small prizes. (Caga Tió means “poop trunk” or “poop Uncle.”) Fun!

Introducing the Caga Tio

Photo credit: Daniel Julià Lundgren