Nit de Nadal i Nadal

Nit de Nadal, Christmas Eve, and Nadal, Christmas Day, are the centre of a run of feasts in Catalonia that ends with Sant Esteve on 26 December, a holiday of its own. The Catalan tradition that surprises everyone else is the Tió de Nadal, a log with a painted face and a red barretina cap, fed with peel and crumbs through December and covered with a blanket; on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning the children beat it with sticks, singing 'Caga tió' until it 'poops' out sweets, torrons and small presents. The bigger gifts still arrive with the Reis, the Three Kings, on 6 January.

Christmas Eve dinner is lighter, often seafood, and many go to the missa del gall, the midnight mass, 'the rooster's mass'. The great meal is Christmas Day lunch: escudella i carn d'olla, a broth with galets, huge pasta shells stuffed with meat, followed by the meats and vegetables from the pot, then neules, rolled wafers, and torrons, the nougats of Xixona and Alacant, with cava. The next day, Sant Esteve, the leftovers become canelons. Every pessebre, the nativity scene, hides a caganer, a squatting figure with his trousers down, which brings the household luck.

The pack has 36 words spread across these domains.