Coco (folklore)

The Coco or Coca (also known as the Cucuy, Cuco, Cuca, Cucu, Cucuí or El-Cucuí) is a mythical ghost-like monster, equivalent to the bogeyman, found in Spain and Portugal.

According to the Real Academia Española, the word coco derives from the Galician and Portuguese côco [ˈkoku], which means "coconut".

[14] In Brazilian folklore, the monster is referred to as Cuca and pictured as a female humanoid alligator, derived from the Portuguese coca,[15] a dragon.

Leave Coca Go to the top of the roof Let the child have A quiet sleep The traditional Brazilian lullaby is as follows, with the Cuca as a female humanoid alligator:

Dorme neném Que a Cuca vem pegar Papai foi pra roça Mamãe foi trabalhar Sleep little baby That Cuca comes to get you Daddy went to the farm Mommy went to work Both Brazilians and Portuguese also have a bogeyman version, which sometimes acquires regional colors where the bogeyman (the shape-shifting Bicho Papão is a monster that is shaped by what the child fears most) is a small owl, murucututu, or other birds of prey that could be on the roof of homes at night (in Brazil) or a mysterious old man with a bag who is also waiting on the roof of the house (in Portugal).

Bicho papão Em cima do telhado Deixa o meu menino dormir Um soninho sossegado Bogeyman Atop the roof Let my child have A quiet sleep Verses and songs were used in pre-Roman Iberia to transmit history to the younger generations, as told by ancient authors.

[19] He was later quoted by Servius, who emphasised that it was the role of the mothers to remember and teach the young men about the war feats of their fathers.

[22] During the Portuguese and Spanish colonization of Latin America, the legend of the Coco was spread to countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.

[27] The dragon shared the same name that was given in Portuguese and Spanish to the cog (a type of ship), and although used mainly for trade, it was also a war vessel common in medieval warfare and piracy raids on coastal villages.

[28][29] The oldest reference to Coca is in the book Livro 3 de Doações de D. Afonso III from the year 1274, where it is referred to as a big fish that appears on the shore:[30] "And if by chance any whale or sperm whale or mermaid or coca or dolphin or Musaranha or other large fish that resembles some of these die in Sesimbra or Silves or elsewhere[.]"

[34] In the Beiras, heads carved on pumpkins, called coca, would be carried by the village boys, stuck on top of wooden stakes.

The same name [Coca] is given to the pumpkin perforated with the shape of a face, with a candle burning in the inside—this gives the idea of a skull on fire—that the boys on many lands of our Beira carry stuck on a stick.

[35]An analogous custom was first mentioned by Diodorus Siculus (XIII.56.5;57.3), in which Iberian warriors, after the battle of Selinunte, in 469 BC, would hang the heads of the enemies on their spears.

[40][41] According to João de Barros, the name of the "coconut" derived from coco and was given to the fruit by the sailors of Vasco da Gama, c.1498, because it reminded them of this mythical creature.

We make use of these words to frighten children, because the inner shell of the Coco has on its outside surface three holes giving it the appearance of a skull.

[47][48][49][50] In Portugal, depending on the region, the Pão-por-Deus assumes different names: santoro or santorinho,[51] dia dos bolinhos (cookies day), or fieis de deus.

[57][58] In this same city of Coimbra, where we find ourselves today, it is customary for groups of children to walk on the streets, on the 31st October and 1st and 2nd November, at nightfall, with a hollow pumpkin with holes that were cut out pretending to be eyes, nose and mouth, as if it was a skull, and with a stump of candle lit from within, to give it a more macabre look.

[59]In Coimbra the begging mentions "Bolinhos, bolinhós" and the group brings an emptied pumpkin with two holes representing the eyes of a personage and a candle lit in the inside [...] another example of the use of the pumpkin or gourd as a human representation, is in the masks of the muffled young men during the desfolhada, the communal stripping of the maize, in Santo Tirso de Prazins (Guimarães), which after, they carry hoisted on a stick and with a candle in the inside, and leave them stuck on any deserted place to put fear to who is passing by.

[71][better source needed] The Chapel of Our Lady of the Heads (Nossa Senhora das Cabeças) situated 50 m (160 ft) northwest of the ruins of the Roman era temple of Our Lady of the Heads (Orjais, Covilhã) evidences a continuity in the use of a sacred space that changed from a pagan worship cult area to a Christian one and continued to be a place of worship for centuries after.

[82] In the village of Ponte, parish of Mouçós, on a hill that overlooks the River Corgo, there is a chapel called Santo Cabeço which legend says was built by the mouros encantados.

The local people also have the custom of putting their head inside the hole: some to hear the whisper that is similar to the waves of the sea, others to heal headaches.

[85] In Portimão during the holy week celebrations, in the procissão dos Passos (Spanish: Procesión de los Pasos), a procession organized by the Catholic brotherhoods, the herald, a man dressed with a black hooded cloak that covered his face and had three holes for the eyes and mouth, led the procession and announced the death of Christ.

[87] In 1498, the Portuguese King Manuel I gave permission to the Catholic brotherhood of the Misericórdia to collect the bones and remains from the gallows of those that had been condemned to death and put them in a grave every year on All Saints' Day.

[94] In Ribadeo, two giant figures represent "el coco y la coca" that dance at the sound of drummers and Galician bagpipe players.

[105] In the last chapter of the work of Miguel de Cervantes, the epitaph of Don Quijote identifies him as the scarecrow and el coco.

[citation needed] A wealthy family of Cucuys appear in Wizards of Waverly Place episode "Alex Gives Up".

Surprisingly, they are afraid of werewolves which evident at the end of the episode when the parents jump overboard their boat once they find out Mason, the boyfriend of Alex Russo, is in fact a werewolf.

[citation needed] On the television series Grimm, in the fifth episode of season three, El Cucuy poses as a little, old lady who answers the prayers of crime victims, changes into beast form, and brutally slays criminals, thus rendering a version of vigilante justice that is a departure from the standard El Cucuy legend.

Enlisting the assistance from Lalo, Sergio, and Stanley, Carl invites Ronnie Anne, Bobby, Adelaide, and Vito to partake in it.