Christmas in Spain

Every time when I travel to Spain I surprise how many different cultures and traditions this one country contains. Not only their language and traditions are different but also the people of that region believe that they should be independent from each other. This time I had a chance to get to know more of the Christmas and New Year’s Eve traditions in the Basque country and the Catalonia. 

The Basque country is much different from the other parts of Spain. Not only the Euskara language is the oldest in Europe but it’s also unique from other languages. The Basque country also has their autonomy which separates the region from the other parts of Spain. Even though Basques are strong in their nationalist habits, they are curios to get to know foreigners and are generally very welcoming people. 

Basque country has probably the best food in the whole Spain. The tiny city of San Sebastian has more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else in the world. The Basque version of tapas is called pintxos and these little bites don’t only taste good but also look like pieces of art. Also because located on the coast, Basque country is famous from their seafood. Therefore, also the Christmas dinner mostly contained seafood treats such as squid, oysters, crab and local fish. Different but delicious! 

The funniest Christmas traditions what I’ve ever seen is the Catalonian pooping figures. Caganer, which is a pooping boy, symbolizes down to earth people while a pooping log, known as cagatio, is found in every family of Catalonia. One end of the log has a face painted on it. Near Christmas this log with a face painted on one end is draped over with a blanket and on the Christmas Eve kids beat it with sticks and exhort it to defecate. When they lift away the blanket, they find treats hidden beneath – treats, their parents tell them, that the log has pooped out. The Catalonian saying explains about this tradition: “The king poops, the Pope poops. Nobody can escape it.”