# The Great Defecator of Christmas **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 22, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270 "2006-12-22T21:09:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/1 "2006-12-22T21:09:57Z")
Interesting Christmas customs continue to crop up from around the world. I’ve never heard of this one before: [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061221/D8M4U9AO0.html](http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061221/D8M4U9AO0.html) > [@](#): > > BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - The Virgin Mary. The three kings. A few wayward sheep. These are the figures one expects to find in a traditional Christmas nativity scene. Not a smartly dressed peasant squatting behind a rock with his rear-end exposed. > > Yet statuettes of “El Caganer,” or the great defecator in the Catalan language, can be found in nativity scenes, and increasingly on the mantelpieces of collectors, throughout Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, where for centuries symbols of defecation have played an important role in Christmas festivities. Defecation hasn’t played a very large part in the CalMeacham family households, I’m forced to admit. But to some people, it does. The mind boggles. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/2 "2006-12-22T21:20:41Z")
Does it play a part in my Christmas? Depends. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/3 "2006-12-22T21:20:44Z")
All of a sudden, I am filled with Christmas spirit. Thank you, **Cal**! ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/4 "2006-12-22T21:28:27Z")
[Mecagum Deu, en la creu, en el fuster que la feu i en el fill de puta que va plantar el pi.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_238.html) This is the only Catalan I know, believe it or not. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/5 "2006-12-22T21:30:58Z")
Mr. Hankey??? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/6 "2006-12-22T22:16:16Z")
[Crap Photo](http://www3.flickr.com/photos/happyrach8/102768250/in/dateposted/). ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/7 "2006-12-22T22:28:41Z")
I did not know that. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/8 "2006-12-22T22:37:41Z")
[Jessica Simpson voice] I totally don’t know what that means, but I \*want \* it. [/JSv] ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/9 "2006-12-22T22:39:06Z")
And in a single day, within a matter of minutes, I learn not only about El Caganer but [Caga Tio](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=401252)! (See Birdmonster’s post – #2, how appropriate!) Holy shit! Really! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/10 "2006-12-22T22:40:20Z")
My ignorance has been fought, and for the first time, I’m sorry my ignorance lost. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/11 "2006-12-22T23:12:00Z")
Wow. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/12 "2006-12-22T23:58:15Z")
As I understand it, they hide this little guy in the nativity scene and let the little ones hunt for him. Also, there’s a traditional caganer, but they make caganers in the shape in all kinds of costumes and with the figure of all kinds of celebrities, even the Prince and Princess of Asturias. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/13 "2006-12-23T01:23:58Z")
Hmmm, a guy in a red cap that leaves “presents” on Christmas night. Santa baby, dump it down the chimney tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/14 "2006-12-23T01:32:26Z")
That’d be a perfect addition to my ex’s ever-growing, inordinately expensive, now-covering-an-entire-effing-dining-room-table Christmas Town. I’ll have my son sneak it in there before all of the ex-relllies show up. I’ve got to find a place to order one of those. ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/15 "2006-12-23T03:10:31Z")
I learned about that from [QI](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QI). It took a lot of willpower for me not to bring it up when I was setting up our nativity scene with my mom and my 10-year-old sister the other day. It didn’t really seem like the time, but it was so tempting. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/16 "2006-12-23T03:39:32Z")
> [@](#): > > …For centuries symbols of defecation have played an important role in Christmas festivities. That definitely isn’t a sentence I expected to read when I logged onto the SDMB this evening. Gives new meaning to the Yule log. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-defecator-of-christmas/385270/17 "2006-12-23T03:46:56Z")
[QUOTE=Lord Il Palazzo] That definitely isn’t a sentence I expected to read when I logged onto the SDMB this evening. Gives new meaning to the Yule log. [/QUOTE] No, [this gives new meaning to Yule log](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caga_Ti%C3%B3).