Lent in tradition
- Parent Categories: The traditions
The 40 days preceding Holy Easter
by Carlo Lapucci
To understand the meaning that Lent had, and in part still has, in the calendar, we need to turn back the clock a little, to the time when this period was, for many people, the worst time of the year from the point of view of table, health, hardship and survival.
The cold, fought with the fireplace, the warmers, the braziers, hardened in this season, putting a strain on the body. The food supplies of those who had to live off the land were starting to run out: wheat, wine, salted meat, preserved fruit, jams... everything quickly ran out and people often began to feel hungry.
Even the chicken coop said no: you couldn't destroy the possibility of spring hatching by eating the hens, or using the eggs that returned to the nests in January. Rabbits also had to be left for breeding.