Thursday, December 20, 2007

 

Caga Tio

It's amazing what you can learn from Teletubbies. Today we learnt that in Catalonia, they take a log into their home around the 8th December, warm it in a blanket, feed it food and generally welcome it as a member of the family. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, they beat it with sticks, exhorting it to "shit nuts, not sardines", and then look under the blanket to see what they've got. Traditionally, it seems, they get nuts if they've been good, and sardines if they haven't, but more modern interpretations seem to involve sunglasses or jigsaw puzzles. Then they set fire to it.

There's a parable there, I think, about the dangers of being welcomed into a stranger's home around Christmas. Or maybe not.

At least we don't do anything stupid like warn children against the dangers of talking to strangers, then waiting until the Christmas season and exhorting them to sit on the knee of any bloke with a beard and a red suit, who will give them presents and tell them to "be good" and "keep secrets" for him. And who will (if they're lucky), enter their (normally secure) home at night via a (frankly Freudian) domestic orifice which is closed to all "normal people" and make a special delivery in a set of underclothing.

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# posted by MikeCamel @ 7:31 am
Comments:
Sardines or nuts- interesting...

As for the Father Christmas stuff, Chris and I had an interesting talk abt that 2day, we have always made sure our children know that F.C. is simply a story, even introducing them to the story of St Nicholas etc.

I am not a fan of this kind of make believe for various reasons, including issues of trust etc...

Each to their own I guess, but...
# posted by Blogger Sally : 8:36 pm
 
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