“Quaremma”

Traditions

On the balconies and terraces of Pulsano and throughout the Salento area, the Quaremma is exposed (a term derived from French, dating back to the French presence in the area in the 14th century: from the French Careme, translated into Lent): puppet typical of the Salento folk costume symbol of the beginning of Lent and the end of the Carnival, it represents an old ugly malnourished, all dressed in black for mourning for the death of the Carnival, in the right hand a thread of wool with a spindle, symbols of the industriousness and the time that flows and in the left a bitter orange (marangia) pierced by seven chicken feathers for how many Sundays are missing from Lent to Easter. The bitter orange (marangia) with its acrid taste represents suffering and seven feathers one for each week of abstinence and sacrifice that precedes Easter day. A pen is removed every week. At the end of the period, with the dry bitter orange (marangia) and the finished feathers, the caremma is removed from the terrace and hoisted on a pole with a thread, once the Resurrection is reached, it is burned and with the fire the period of purification begins and of salvation.

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