Fireplace excursus A

[muckefuck]

While surfing the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana for fireplace terminology, I came across this gem of folklore:

fumera Ninot ple d'ulls que, abans de Nadal, suposadament davalla per la xemeneia i s'encarrega d'avisar els Reis o el tió sobre la bondat que han fet els nens.

For those of you who inexplicably don't read Catalan, En Fumera (from fum "smoke") is the name of a spirit that sneaks into the house through the chimney and spies on the children so he can report back to the Three Kings (who are the holiday giftbearers in most of Spain) or the Yule Log (don't ask!). Another source informs me that té set ulls, quatre al davant i tres al darrera ("he has seven eyes, four on the front and three in back"), and yet another that he has four ears as well. In Girona, he apparently goes by the alias "Ximineia" (cf. xemeneia "chimney") or "Xocolata" ("chocolate") fent referència a l’estat i els colors de la seva vestimenta ("referring to the colors of his clothing") and supposedly some parents used to actually create one out of cloth and leave it sitting around the house in order to keep the younger kids in line. So be thankful: However much your own parents might have messed with you, they never brought a creepy doll into the house and told you it was watching your every move.

Comments

[off_coloratura]

Is this where the Mexican carol Fum, Fum, Fum gets its refrain?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I've always been told that fum fum fum is onomatopoeia for guitar-strumming. At any rate, it is originally a Catalan carol, although now known throughout the Spanish-speaking world and beyond.

Catalan yuletide

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

There aren't many chimneys in Catalunya except in rural areas these days. And although the Three Kings are traditional gift-bearers, American influence abounds. Kids being kids want presents on both December 25^th and The Epiphany. Harried parents relent by providing traditional sweets on Xmas or la nit de Nadal and save the bigger stuff for later.

I don't call a caga tió a "Yule Log" — it's a shit log. After all, when you sing to it, you threaten to beat the shit out of it with a stick unless it shits sweets!

I guess it's about time for me to set out my collection of caganers, my little shitters.

Carles

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Spare a thought for the delicate sensibilities of my readers, won't you?

[runa27.livejournal.com]

A "yule log" is NOT the same as a caga tio, or "pooping log" (which actually only "poops" sweets and candies and the like). At ALL. Yule log is a very different tradition (different like WHOA) which comes to us from a vastly different region.

You can't call a caga tio a "yule log", because then you're calling it something it's not. At least call it what they call it in the original Catalan, with or without the accent marks (which I can't really do on this computer, unfortunately :\ ).

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Never heard of that!
Aquests del nord estan bojos, ben bojos.

If you only knew how of a melting pot the Xmas traditions are, you wouldn't believe it

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

However much your own parents might have messed with you, they never brought a creepy doll into the house and told you it was watching your every move.

I thought you were half-kraut, like me...
I didn't have this particular creepy doll but I'm pretty much sure I was in the last generation to grow up with a non-ironic presentation of Struwwelpeter. And the Mainzelmaenschen, who had a sinister edge round our way.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Three-quarters by heritage, but all American by upbringing. Mother was the black sheep in her petit-bourgeois family, which is how she ended up with my father, and this informed their parenting to the point that we grew up in a household without bogeymen of any kind; the carrot was always fatter than the stick.