Christmas in Catalonia

Jin­gle Bells, fairy lights, big fam­ily meals and gifts are all part of Christ­mas just about every­where in the west­ern world, but each coun­try has its own fes­tive idio­syn­crasies and tra­di­tions, and Cat­alo­nia is no dif­fer­ent. One of the best - and per­haps strangest - ex­am­ples of how a Cata­lan Christ­mas is dif­fer­ent from else­where is the fig­ure of the Tió de Nadal (pic­tured). In the days be­fore Christ­mas, house­holds will have a log with a painted smi­ley face propped up on two sticks, wear­ing a tra­di­tional bar­retina hat and cov­ered in a blan­ket so it doesn’t get ’cold’. Chil­dren take care of the log, and even ’feed’ it, with the idea of fat­ten­ing it up in time for the big day, usu­ally Christ­mas Eve or Christ­mas Day. When the big mo­ment ar­rives, the kids hit the log with sticks, call­ing on it to ’defe­cate’ gifts. When the blan­ket is re­moved, lo and be­hold, the log will have mag­i­cally de­posited some pre­sents.

Yet the tío is not the only thing you need to cel­e­brate a real Cata­lan Christ­mas, as apart from the rude ca­ganer fig­urine doing his or her busi­ness (see page 44 for more in­for­ma­tion on that!), no Cata­lan Christ­mas is com­plete with­out a Na­tiv­ity Scene with its full cast of char­ac­ters rep­re­sent­ing the tra­di­tional story of Christ’s birth, as well as a poin­set­tia, the lus­cious, red-leaved plant that dec­o­rates homes at this time of year, not to for­get some of the sweet nougat bars known as torró.

Where am I going to find all of that, you might ask. Well, never fear, be­cause an­other fea­ture of Christ­mas in Cat­alo­nia are the tra­di­tional fes­tive mar­kets held all over the coun­try, which sell every­thing you need for the hol­i­day pe­riod, as well as giv­ing you a good ex­cuse for a day out. Per­haps the biggest mar­ket is the Santa Llúcia Fair held every year in Barcelona, which sees over 200 stalls set up around the city’s cathe­dral. So get in the Christ­mas mood, and check out the near­est mar­ket near you.

the eye