The caganer in nativity scenes

[Prometevsberg]

found in the Newswire, here taken from <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-1432517,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-1432517,00.html</a>
Defecating Figurines Part Of Holiday
Tuesday January 8, 2002 9:40 AM

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Placing statuettes of defecating people in Nativity scenes is a Christmastime tradition so old and so strong in Spain's Catalonia region that even the Roman Catholic Church here doesn't dare try to ban it.

When an exhibit of the figurines in a California museum sparked an angry denunciation from a Catholic group in the United States, Catalonians who cherish the tradition came ardently to its defense.

``Unfortunately, there are intolerant people who are offended by any little thing,'' Josep Maria Joan, director of the Toy Museum of Catalonia, said Monday. His museum has a permanent collection of the figurines, known as caganers.

Spanish artist Antoni Miralda's exposition ``Poetical Gut'' at Copia, a food, wine and arts museum in Napa, Calif., features ceramic figurines of the pope, nuns and angels with their pants down, squatting over their bowel movements.

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a 350,000- member group based in New York, has written to the museum's board of trustees to say it finds the show offensive.

``When it's degrading, everybody knows it except the spin doctors who run the museums,'' the group's president, William Donohue, said Sunday.

In a tradition that dates back to the 18th century, Catalonians hide caganers in Christmas Nativity scenes and invite friends over to try to find them. The figures symbolize fertilization and the hope for prosperity in the coming year, according to Joan.

``It's really only a game,'' he said. ``The caganer is not supposed to steal Jesus' spotlight in the manger scene. But it's logical that when traditions like this are exported they can be misunderstood.''

An official with the Cultural Heritage department of the Barcelona Roman Catholic diocese, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the tradition as a harmless game for children and indicated the church has no plans to oppose it.

Although the traditional caganer resembles a red-capped Catalonian peasant, Miralda is not the first to depict public figures. Since the 1940s, Catalonians have been making modern renditions of the caganer - including, recently, Osama bin Laden.

For Marti Torrent, founder of the 70-member Association of Friends of the Caganer, the meaning goes deeper than child's play.

To him, the caganer's act symbolizes ``the fertilization of the earth'' and pride in the land of Catalonia, whose inhabitants won the right to speak their own language and govern themselves after the 1939-75 Spanish dictatorship.

``I know that American society is more strict with its religious ideas than we are in Catalonia,'' said Torrent, 89, who added that what the caganer does is natural. ``Even the king has to do it every day or at least every other day.''

Further links, with figures:
&lt;http://www.ddgi.es/figueres/colecaga.htm&gt;
&lt;http://www.caganer.com/ingles/menu2.html&gt;
yuppie caganer:
http://www.caganer.com/images/NOU/caganers/3013g.jpg
santa claus caganerhttp://www.caganer.com/images/NOU/caganers/7001.jpg

[mongrel]

You're shittin' me!


(Somebody had to say it) ;)

[Megatron]

Originally posted by mongreldog:
<strong>You're shittin' me!


(Somebody had to say it) ;) </strong>

LOL...

What a load of crap! :p

[Prometevsberg]

.....and some more..
&lt;http://www.galeon.com/scapella/caganers/lesmeves.htm&gt;
http://www.galeon.com/scapella/caganers/cures.htm

And from:http://www.spainalive.com/spain/barcelona/home/articulos/articulo7/index.jsp?nombre=Caganers.html
B a r c e l o n a
The best of Barcelona in English

FESTIVE FOOLERY

It may sound sacrilegious but Christmas in Cataluña has a strictly scatological streak (apologies in advance to the sensitive but there are only so many euphemisms you can use given the subject).

At first glance Barcelona's Rambla at Christmas looks like every other western European city with Technicolour decorations, redcheeked Santas and trees heavy with fake snow. But take a quick peek in the window of any local bakery and you'll see what can only be described as carefully confected turds with sugar spun flies on top. It's then you start to get your first serious whiff of something distinctly unseemly.

These disgustingly realistic cake fakes known as tifas are given to children on the King's Feast Day and are just a small indication of Cataluña's strange preoccupation. As Robert Hughes puts it in his book on Barcelona: "The Catalán preoccupation with shit would make Sigmund Freud proud. No society offers more frequent and shining confirmation of his theories of anal retention."

Just as the chocolate Santas play second fiddle to these marzipan offerings, the idea of presents under the tree is equally disdained by the majority of Catalán families who prefer to celebrate Christmas with the Caga Tió (The Shitting Log).

This celebration, usually on Christmas Eve, involves a large trunk full of gifts and sweets covered with a blanket. The 'log' is then bashed with a bastó (a stick) as the children sing: "Caga Tió, atmelles i torró, si no cagues bó, et donaré un cop de bastó." Roughly translated as: "Shit log shit, Sweets and nougat, and if you don't shit good, I'll bash you with my stick." Nice. The blanket is then lifted to reveal an abundance of goodies and the process is repeated until, incredibly, a piece of toilet paper signals the end of the session.

But that's all strictly for the kids. The universal uncrowned king of the Catalán Christmas show is the caganer, euphemistically known as l'homme que fa les seves feines (the guy who's doing his business).

The caganer is a small figure which can be found in the Catalán version of the popular Spanish belén or pessebre. As all eyes contemplate the miraculous birth of baby Jesus, there in a corner squats a little figure with a red beret and his pants down, well, doing his business.

Despite the obvious logistic problems he might present in a live nativity scene, the caganer is the Mickey Mouse of Cataluña's Disneyhour. There are interactive educational websites, origami kits, exhibitions and serious collectors. This year, one Girona baker has even produced a chocolate caganer in the form of Jose María Aznar. Frederic Faure said his intention was not to offend. "It's just a joke, I've already done Jordi Pujol and Bill Clinton so he's in good company." Another popular figure was Luis Figo who signed for Barcelona's bitterest rivals Real Madrid last year.

One of the best collections of caganers is in the Toy Museum of Figueres, coincidentally the home town of that scatological artist Salvador Dalí. Josep María Joan Rosa, the director of the museum, has been collecting caganers for over 40 years. "He's the most popular figure in the nativity scene," he said. But Joan Rosa explains that the caganer is not limited to the traditional representation of the man in the red beret. "There are all sorts of caganers including nuns, soldiers, caganers with toothache, with one leg, this year they're even doing caganers with a mobile phone.

"The idea is that he is slightly hidden, he shouldn't really see the birth of Jesus, he should be hidden behind a rock or a tree and this in turn gives rise to the game of hunt the caganer which you can play whenever you go to other people's houses."

And the reason for what for so many might seem a gross presence at such a sacred moment? "He's fertilising the ground and ensuring the wellbeing of the family for the following year. Putting the caganer in the nativity scene is seen to bring fortune and happiness. Not doing it is bad luck."

Another Catalán commentator and writer Xávier Fabregas claims that the caganer represents "a cosmic indifference which contrasts with the spiritual motivation which is awoken by the greatest mystery of human kind". In other words, he obviously couldn't give a... That might explain the character's absence in most church nativity scenes and his exclusion from some of the serious Master's pessebre competitions.

Whatever his detractors might argue, the caganer forms an almost unholy trinity with the caga tió and the tifa. But are they really related or is it a coincidence? Joan Rosa says: "I suppose it's all related in as much as shit in Cataluña has always been associated with good luck. If you step in it, for example, it's lucky. So it's very probable that all of this is about bringing people good luck and fortune for the coming year."

and go to &lt;http://www.antaviana.com/pessebre/&gt; to make a virtual nativity scene with a caganer

[Megatron]

Damn... that is some seriously weird shit... :eek:

(sorry, had to do it...)

[mongrel]

Holy shit! You're right! ;)

[Prometevsberg]

Perhaps our american friends, combatting public nativity scenes, also might ask why they discriminate against catalan catholicism by not including a a caganer?http://www.educalia.org/c/pares/revista/persomes/gif/caganer.gif

[Megatron]

Bah... that's easily answered.

Americans just can't get their shit together! :D

[mongrel]

Ahhh! Don't tell me this is gonna turn into a shit-joke thread. Shit!

[Megatron]

Originally posted by mongreldog:
<strong>Ahhh! Don't tell me this is gonna turn into a shit-joke thread. Shit!</strong>

Yup... it's beyond hope now.

Respect the shit thread, shithead!!! :D

[mongrel]

He's a poet and didn't know it.


(Shit-too many movies!)

[Monkeybot]

Don't you love how people from all over the world can bond over shit like this?

[mongrel]

Shit-bonding at it's best!

[Prometevsberg]

..three posts more, and we will get a Burning envelope icon, and the topic will be hot shit!

[JohnR]

Where's Waldo taking his dump? :eek:

[Megatron]

Originally posted by Prometevsberg:
<strong>..three posts more, and we will get a Burning envelope icon, and the topic will be hot shit!</strong>

Well... shit happens!

[mongrel]

Here's your hot-shit burning envelope :)

[sbaii]

I haven't laughed so hard since I read the Ignobel Awards.

[Mageth]

This is definitely the work of the devil!

http://www.caganer.com/images/NOU/caganers/4003g.jpg

Hey, wazzup? There's no IMAGE button on my browser, and to the left of the edit box a message says "UBBCode Images not permitted"

[ January 10, 2002: Message edited by: Mageth ]</p>

[Mageth]

When an exhibit of the figurines in a California museum sparked an angry denunciation from a Catholic group in the United States, Catalonians who cherish the tradition came ardently to its defense.

Sounds like the shit really hit the fan!

[Prometevsberg]

When an exhibit of the figurines in a California museum sparked an angry denunciation from a Catholic group in the United States, Catalonians who cherish the tradition came ardently to its defense.

Sounds like the shit really hit the fan!

Would it not be more accurate to say that the caganer fans hit the shits?

[Mageth]

All I know is that this gives a whole new meaning to "Yuletide Log."

[Mageth]

Hey, is anyone else here seeing the last image I posted? I can see other images in the thread, but the ability to post images seems to be disabled, at least for me.

[PopeInTheWoods]

Dumpity-dump-dump, dumpity-dump-dump, look at Frosty go.... :eek: :eek: :eek:

Andy (PITW)

[Mageth]

In reply to my last message, it seems the IMG UBB tag has been (hopefully temporarily) disabled due to a bug in UBB software. So for now we'll be limited to providing links to images. I'd suggest going ahead and manually adding the ... tags so that when the feature is enabled the images will display (if you so desire).

[Toto]

"I am ripe shit and the world is an asshole" - Martin Luther, also noted for his scatological talk.

[Mageth]

Come, he told me
to dump to dump dump,
The newborn king to see
and dump dump dump dump
Our finest shit we bring
to dump dump dump dump
To lay before the King
to dump dump dump dump
dump dump dump dump
dump dump dump dump
So to honor Him
with dump dump dump dump
When we dump

[freemonkey]

crap, all the good shit jokes are taken.

[jess]

Thanks.

What's next?

[Megatron]

Well shit on me, there's no more turd jokes? :p

[Hastur]

You gotta be shitting me! No more turd jokes?

[Mageth]

If you believe in transsubstantiation, after communion, do you shit Jesus? If not, where does he go?

[Mageth]

Tell the same jokes again. Then this thread would really be returded.

[mongrel]

Life is like a shit sandwich. The more bread you've got, the less shit you've gotta eat.


(Ok, I know it's old)

[Megatron]

This thread has gone straight down the toilet. :cool:

[Monkeybot]

Yeah, I wouldn't use it to wipe my ass.