Quaremma, the Befana who reappears before Easter

Puglia, during the Easter period, offers some of the most interesting traditions of Italian folklore.

In addition to the tables of San Giuseppe, the rites of Holy Week and the Mysteries, it is customary to hang "pupi" in the streets of the towns that represent the so-called Quaremma Quaremma (or Caremma or Quarantana) in the weeks preceding Easter.

These are puppets that represent old ladies dressed in black rags and that give a haunted air to the alleys where they are hung on Ash Wednesday. This ancient tradition inaugurates the Lenten period after the carnival revelry.

Quaremma is displayed on terraces, windowsills and balconies of houses in many towns in Salento, such as Oria, Corigliano d’Otranto, Alliste and Gallipoli, which maintain a very strong tradition. Its name is, in all probability, of French origin, and it cannot be excluded that it has to do with the presence in Salento of transalpine soldiers in the 14th century (therefore, it would derive from the term Careme, later translated into Quaresima).

The puppet depicts an old lady, in some ways similar to the Befana: an old woman with a scary appearance, dressed in black to show her mourning (for the end of Carnival).

A peculiarity of the puppet is the presence of a woolen thread and a spindle in the right hand: this is a symbol of industriousness and the desire to work, but above all of the passing of time. In the left hand, instead, he holds a marangia, that is to say a bitter orange (sometimes replaced by a pomegranate or a potato), inside which are inserted seven chicken feathers: the number corresponds to the Sundays remaining until Easter. The bitter orange also has a symbolic meaning: its sour taste, in fact, indicates the suffering, penance and sacrifice that should characterize the period of Lent. Each chicken feather, instead, is equivalent to a week of abstinence: in fact, every seven days one is removed, until the arrival of Easter. When Lent ends, the thread to be woven has run out, the feathers have run out and the bitter orange has dried up: at this point the Quaremma or Caremma, after being moved from the balcony or the windowsill, is displayed on a pole, hanging from a thread. When the bells begin to ring to announce the Resurrection of Jesus, the puppet is burned amidst the explosions of firecrackers and blasts of mortars: it is party time, everyone is happy because the fire marks salvation, purification.

This centuries-old tradition, which mixes sacred and profane elements, involves a period of sacrifice, which for the most respectful also manifests itself at the table, with the temporary elimination of cheese, eggs and meat. All deprivations that disappear during Holy Week, when people dedicate themselves to the preparation of typical Easter sweets: one of the most famous and tastiest is the coddura (sometimes indicated as cuddhura), a kind of small braided donut that contains hard-boiled eggs still in their shells and which is given by girls to their boyfriends on Easter day.

On Ash Wednesday, to signal the end of the Carnival festivities, the Quaremma appears hanging in a central position, clearly visible, so that everyone, observing the puppet and encountering its menacing gaze, remembers the need for the sacrifice of Lent.