A message of love and peace to Everyone

Merry Christmas
Bon Nadal
Feliz Navidad
Eguberri on
Bo Nadal
Joyeux Noël
Frohe Weihnachten
Hyvää Joulua
Veselé Vánoce
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Gleðileg jól
Selamat Natal
Buon Natale
Wesołych świąt bożego Narodzenia
Feliz Natal
Nollaig chridheil
Nadolig llawen


Christmas is a commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Being brought up as a catholic back in Barcelona, we had the tradition of celebrating Christmas every year. We had a celebratory meal and went to mass on Christmas eve and then we had a family celebration on Christmas day. I never believed in Santa, because we didn't have Santa. We had a Nativity display at home, where we kept moving the Three Wise Men, riding camels, a little bit every day until they reached Jesus on 6th January, Epiphany. We wrote a letter to the Three Wise Men and we received our gifts on 6th January.

The tradition in Catalonia is that, instead of Santa, we have a shitting log, "caga tió" (a log that shits presents, usually a real log with a painted face and a traditional catalan hat, "barretina", covered with a blanket) Kids feed the log with sweeties up to Christmas day. On Christmas day, children soak the bottom of wooden sticks in a bucket of water (in the meantime parents put the presents under the blanket). When the children come back, they hit the log with the sticks while chanting:

"Caga tió
Caga torró
Si no vols cagar
Et donaré un cop de bastó"

Roughly translated as:

"Shit log
shit sweets
if you don't want to shit
I'll hit you with the stick"

(A bit aggressive, I know, but we Catalans are a weird bunch :-) )

Then the blanket is lifted and all the presents "magically" appear underneath!! :)

Now, Christmas is not celebrated by everyone. Some people don't celebrate it because it's not part of their culture and religion, for some people Christmas is a sad time, some people can't celebrate it because they don't have a home, they don't have a family, they're in hospital, they're working... many reasons... Some people just don't like celebrating Christmas...

So, not a jolly time for everyone, but I just want to send a message of love and peace to everybody in blipland, not just for Christmas but for everyday in your lives.

This is my Christmas card for you

Thanks very much for all your nice comments! I do really appreciate them! I hope you all had a nice Sunday! :)