The Vella Quaresma or Vella Bacallanera (Old Mother Lent or Old Cod Woman) is a graphic representation of Lent, the period that runs from Ash Wednesday to Holy or Easter Week. In Catholic teaching, this a time of penitence, of fasting and abstinence, popularly known as fer magre which means not eating meat. All in all it is an ascetic way of preparing for Easter.

So it’s not strange that this period of time, with much reflection, penitence, conscience searching and sadness, should be graphically represented by a doddering old woman, with a nasty air about her and a bitter-apple face. The unique features that describe this character are her seven legs (sometimes seven herrings) and the fact she is holding a cod and a basket of vegetables, usually chard, in either hand.

She appears a lot in the printed popular imagination and serves as a calendar: the seven legs take us to Holy Week. The ritualisation and use of the “Vella Quaresma” has local variations but with some common features. Each week we tear or cut off a leg and when we reach the end she’s burnt, like her predecessor, Canestoltes, the Carnival King. A symbolic end to the period of Lent. In some places, at the halfway point in Lent (the fourth week), they saw the old woman in half. Groups of children go round collecting money or food and pretend they are sawing a stick or a print of Old Mother Lent, while following the rhythm of a song. With what they collect they organise a group afternoon snack.

There are old images of the “Vella Quaresma” done by engravers using techniques such as woodcut, or later, lithography or chalcography. The Lent folk tradition gave these artists a reason for showing off their skill. But there were also very easy and humble kinds, like a simple silhouette of newspaper. As a selling point, fishmongers and salted cod stalls would make a calendar similar to the old woman with a dried cod on which they hung seven little codfish or seven herrings.

These days, despite the fact that Lent has lost some of its appeal with the secularisation of society, the “Vella Quaresma” tradition continues, adopting new ways to represent and celebrate it. Two examples are “s’Avia Corema” in Maò or “Serra la Vella” in Ullastrell. Both towns have a giantess called “Vella Quaresma”, an evolution that ensures the age-old character survives. Some schools have also adopted her between Carnival and the Easter holidays to work on various aspects of their curriculum. Mataró and Reus hang up a wooden Mother Lent made by a different illustrator each year. Each week throughout Lent they saw off a leg in the middle of a festive event.