Countries all around the world have their own Christmas traditions. The UK's habit of leaving mince pies, cookies, and milk out for Santa perhaps seeming a bit strange to others. Some traditions have ancient roots, such as the folklore surrounding the visit of Krampus in the Alpine regions, while others are much more modern, with plenty of Swedish families sitting around the TV on the December 24 to watch Disney films, particularly the 1958 All of Us to All of You.
But it's the Spanish region of Catalonia that has perhaps one of the weirder Christmas traditions - and it has to do with a unique aspect added to their nativity scenes. The Catalan region, which includes Barcelona, Girona, and Tarragona, has not one but two Christmas traditions involving poo - the first of which is the Caga Tió, which translates directly to 'the sh*tting log'.
This unique festive celebration sees families hollow out and decorate a log, typically adding a funny face and a red hat. In the weeks preceding Christmas, this log is gradually filled with sweets. Then, on Christmas Eve, children whack the log with sticks and demand that it poos itself, at which point the sweets begin to fall out.
They even sing a song while doing this, in which they say that if the log poos sardines or anything else that isn't sweets, they'll continue whacking it with the sticks. Alongside the poo llog, visitors to the region during the Christmas scene may notice something rather off about any nativity scenes on display.
