A Very Crappy Christmas to you, too!

So a friend of mine is going to Barcelona with her fiance over the Christmas break. While there, she told me, she plans to purchase a Caganer.

Or, in the vernacular English, a Shitting Shepherd.

When she told us about this at lunchtime yesterday, one of my colleagues and I exchanged incredulous looks and in unison said "did she just say...?" and, oh, yes she did. Apparently, this is a Catalonian traditional addition to the Nativity Scene - a shepherd taking a crap in the presence of the Holy Family.

I'm... amused by this, now. At first, I wasn't sure how to feel - I mean, I was raised with the Christian traditions, devoid of the Christian religion. We did Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy (although, I'm not too sure that's a Christian one) just to appease both my grandparents and our childhood greed. Who doesn't like presents, right? So the little Pooper by the Manger seemed, well, vaguely sacreligious to me. Then, I considered that Spain is largely a Catholic country, and figured that if they didn't have a problem with it, far be it from me to take issue with the l'il pooter.

Ah, yet another quaint European custom...