The first day of Lent, the so-called Ash Wednesday, reminds us that the glories of Carnival are now a memory and that the time has come for penance, sobriety and profound spirituality in view of Easter. Or at least, this was what happened until recently, when time and seasons were marked by deeply rooted religious rites in our Puglia, from north to south. The first of the Easter rites is precisely Ash Wednesday, so called due to the custom of sprinkling the ashes obtained by burning the branches of the olive tree blessed on Palm Sunday on the foreheads of the faithful. In Puglia there are many traditions and rites, between the sacred and the profane, that accompany this period of the year, such as in Foggia the tradition of the Seven Dolls of Lent: along the main streets of the villages, seven cloth dolls are hung , representing the Sundays of Lent. Every Sunday one takes off until the last one which will be placed on Easter Sunday in an atmosphere of celebration and aggregation.
No less suggestive is the Salento tradition of Quaremma, a puppet with the appearance of an elderly lady dressed in mourning for the death of the Carnival. The old woman carries in her right hand a thread of wool and a spindle, a symbol of the passage of time, while in her left hand she holds a bitter orange, a symbol of penance, and seven chicken feathers, corresponding to the weeks of Lenten abstinence. Every seven days one is removed until Easter arrives, when the Quaremma is burned.
Foto di copertina @silvia.tommasi