Christmas Creep: Caganer

I've blogged about this (mostly) Catalan Christmas "curiosity" before, but never in the shadow of Mexico.  A lot of things have made it into native Mexican culture via Spanish conquest, Nahua speaking villages are largely Catholic (not that The Church is wholly Spanish), they use European and Middle Eastern spices in their traditional mollis (moles) and sometimes speak Spanish.  A number of things from Spain are almost just "Mexican" by now:  Gazpacho, the use of cultivated garlic, cured meats, traditional wheat breads and yes, Catholic Saints--some of which are native Mexican by birth at this point.  But one thing that you will be hard pressed to find in Mexican Christmas celebrations is the Caganer.  This character is so popular that huge statues are erected in Spanish malls!  What is it???

The traditional Caganer image with Catalan hat.

Caganer literally means "the shitter" and it appears in Nativity scenes from a large part of Spain, parts of Italy and some places in southern France.  It's meant to be a fertility symbol amongst farmers.  We all know that manure has been one of the original fertilizers of crops, so this figure has it's origin in that old human memory.  However, it has gotten a bit out of hand.  These days figurines of really famous people from all over the world are produced as Caganers and it has become a strange little collection fetish in places as far from Spain as China.  One place, however, that you will not find a great craze for these porcelain crappers is...Mexico.  Check out the famous Caganers below.

Not joking about the Spanish Malls!  Geez can you imagine the outrage here in the US if someone did this??  Actually, that's an amusing thought!  Bring it on.

For The Peanut!

Don't ask...they'd only ask me to explain.