The Santa Llúcia fair
For roughly four weeks before Christmas the avenue beside the cathedral fills with wooden stalls selling everything a Catalan household needs to build a nativity scene, plus a few things it strictly does not.
The stalls
Complete nativity figures, real fir trees, moss, cork bark, little mirrors that stand in for rivers and shepherd figurines by the hundred. Prices drop noticeably in the final week.
The caganer
The traditionally dressed Catalan peasant, trousers down, tucked into the back of the nativity for luck. Modern versions cover every politician currently in office.
The tio
A hollow log with a painted face, sold here with a blanket. Children feed it through December and then beat it with sticks on the 24th until it produces sweets.