Arcadia Spain

La Vella Quaresma is the time that it runs from Ash Wednesday until Holy Week.

Currently, despite the fact that Lent has lost its intensity for securing society, Old Lent is still in force and adopts new forms of representation and celebration so we could not keep it off here in Arcadia!

In many towns in Spain, Old Lent is like a kind of calendar represented by an old woman with 7 feet, which is traditionally used to mark the passage of time in the long seven weeks of the Lenten season.

Here in Arcadia we have our Old Woman with 7 feet!

The image has a scarf on the head, a basket under the arm through which “chorizos” and cod appear and then seven legs coming out from under the long skirt. One shoe indicates to listen, the other to want, the next one to share, the other to help and the last ones: striving, reading and learning.

According to the tradition on Sundays, the children of the house would tear off the old woman's foot between games and solemn. On Easter Sunday the Old Woman was burned with the only remaining foot and the first succulent meal was served.

To continue with this tradition in Arcadia we’ll tear off the old woman's foot every week until Easter Sunday!