The Coco or Coca is a mythical ghost-like monster, equivalent to the bogeyman, found in Spain and Portugal. Those beliefs have also spread in many Hispanophone and Lusophone countries. It can also be considered an Iberian version of a bugbear as it is a commonly used figure of speech representing an irrational or exaggerated fear. The Cucuy is a male being while Cuca is a female version of the mythical monster. The "monster" will come to the house of disobedient children at night and take them away.
Que Viene el Coco (1799) by Goya
Festa da Coca during the Corpus Christi celebration, in Monção, Portugal
Cucafera during the Festa Major de Santa Tecla in Tarragona, Spain
In Portuguese, the skull-like carved vegetable lanterns are called "coco" or "coca".
The bogeyman is a mythical creature used by adults to frighten children into good behaviour. Bogeymen have no specific appearances and conceptions vary drastically by household and culture, but they are most commonly depicted as masculine or androgynous monsters that punish children for misbehaviour. The bogeyman, and conceptually similar monsters can be found in many cultures around the world. Bogeymen may target a specific act or general misbehaviour, depending on the purpose of invoking the figure, often on the basis of a warning from an authority figure to a child. The term is sometimes used as a non-specific personification of, or metonym for, terror, and sometimes the Devil.
Goya's Que viene el Coco' ("Here Comes the Boogeyman / The Boogeyman is Coming"), c. 1797
German game Der schwarze Mann, Philadelphia 1907.