The Catalan Spaniards, you know the ones who say they’re not really Spanish and speak that crazy language, have a little game they like to play with their nativity scenes around Christmas time. It seems in Spain, their nativity scenes encompass the entire city of Bethlehem instead of just the manger scene. Which provides the perfect labrynth to hide a figurine of a man taking a crap called a Caganer. This sounds made up, but really it’s just Catalan. (Kind of the same thing?) Says Wikipedia:

Possible reasons for placing a man who is in the act of excreting solid waste from his posterior in a scene which is widely considered holy are as follows:

Just tradition.

Perceived humor. [Ed. Note: We perceive!]

Mythical Defecation by Dwarfs

Finding the Caganer is a fun game, especially for children.

The Caganer, by creating feces, is fertilizing the Earth. However, this is probably an a posteriori explanation, and nobody would say they put the Caganer on the Nativity scene for this reason.

The Caganer represents the equality of all people: regardless of status, race, gender everyone defecates.

Increased naturalism of an otherwise archetypal (thus idealised) story, so that it is more believable, taken literally and seriously.



This is so much cooler than Where’s Waldo! Especially when someone takes a few liberties with the caganer. Here’s a whole gallery of poopers for your amusement.

Caganer [Wikipedia]
Artesanos del Caganer [Website]