"The Coco"

Have you ever heard of characters that scare or take away children who don’t want to sleep?

In Spain we have "El Coco". The "Coco" is a scary character which adults use to frighten children.

It is also known in Portugal and some countries of Latin America.

It is thought that it is invent of adult but his history is longer. In Portugal and Galicia it is an ancient tradition (from the Celts) to empty pumpkins and slashes in the shell eyes nose and mouths. It has nothing to do with American customs imported later.

For the name of this character many possibilities have been suggested. According to some etymologists, in 1498, the men of the portuguese admiral Vasco de Gama called the fruit of the coconut palm (“cocotero”), "coconut" ("coco"), because of the resemblance of the shell and three holes with a head with eyes and mouth, like a "Coco" or Bogeyman.

In Spain we colloquially call "coco" (coconut) to the head, and there are expressions like «comer el coco» ("eat the coconut") or «tener mucho coco» ("have much coconut").

The Coco also appears in nanas or nursery rhymes

The best known version is:

"Duérmete niño, / duérmete ya, / que viene el coco / y te comerá."

"Go to sleep boy / go to sleep now, / coconut will come / and will eat you."

 

 

In the late eighteenth century (in 1799), the famous spanish painter Francisco de Goya made an engraving, in the series "Los Caprichos", of this popular character named "Que viene el coco" ("Here comes the bogeyman"). Currently on the Museum of Prado (Madrid)







"Que viene el coco" ("Here comes the bogeyman").Goya

Interpretation of Goya engraving:

Goya and the Enlightenment considered a mistake to educate children scaring them with ghosts and unreal characters. They believed that it was necessary to remove ignorance and superstition. According to anecdotes of the time, some mothers used this strategy with their children saying: The Coco is coming!, when in fact it was her lover. Thus it is manifested in several manuscripts and the own engraving of Goya where you can see the excited expression on the face of the mother for receiving the Coco, a person of her choice but that she didn’t want her children to see.

In your country, are there some characters like "The Coco"?