Do I really get my presents from a pooping log?
salve!
One of the best parts of my job is meeting students from all around the world. Recently, we have been sharing our end of year traditions and festivities, and it has been great fun, especially for the younger ones!
I thought you might like to hear about the way we celebrate Christmas in the part of the world I am from, Catalonia:
If your child has told you some strange stories involving hitting a log to get him to "poop" Christmas sweets and presents, please do not be alarmed that they misunderstood the lesson. We do indeed feed a fireplace log food leftovers in the lead up to Christmas. We also talk to it and keep it warm under blankets. His name is Tió.
The true fun takes place on the night of the 24th of December, when the children gather around Tió with wooden sticks and hit him very hard while singing a song asking him to poo the presents. The children then hide in a room until they hear a loud fart. At that moment, they come out to see all the presents and sweets that have been... well... pooped. That is, unless you have not been a bit naughty, in which case you might get some toilet paper and be asked to hit the log one more time!
This scatological tradition will not surprise those who are already familiar with my Latin version of the Catalan tale Patufet, which also includes some loud farts. Roman and Greek literature is not short of references to excrement, and their attitude to toileting vocabulary was very different from ours, which can sometimes also be a shock to students - and parents!
As we are nearing the end of the year, I would also like to take the opportunity to send you my best wishes for the holidays ahead: felix annus novus!!!
Hi! I'm a Classics specialist
Follow me for resources, learning tips and examination information
salve Reader! Today I was working on some new resources, and a fun discussion I had with a student last year came to mind. It went like this: We were joking about looking up easy words in the vocab list due to lack of confidence, and as an example he mentioned aut ('or'). When I told him that that would indeed be quite unlucky, as the word is not in the OCR vocabulary list for GCSE, he just would not believe it and ended up, ironically, looking it up. Surprise: OCR does not require aut (as in...
salve Reader! I hope this email finds you not too tired from the longest term of the year. I am flying to Barcelona on Thursday for a conference, and let me tell you something: am very much ready to have a good rest in the sun! If you are like me, you are probably looking forward to a break, hoping that it will lead to an energetic return in 2026. Now, Reader, when your teen's Latin GCSE is just around the corner, this is not as easily done as it is said! But I am here to help: enter my Latin...
salve Reader! As we wind down for the holidays, I wanted to share with you the outcome of my greatly anticipated podcast cameo on Satura Lanx's Rara Avis. We did not only speak online, but also in person in London! Let me tell you why putting my Latin to good use was so meaningful for me: When I started to learn Latin, I was often told it was a dead subject with little use for "real" life (whatever that is). I guess it did not help that the uni course I chose was called Philology, which...