chopping legs off of lent

Welcome to Lent!  Countdown to Easter: 6 weeks!  On Friday, the kids got to pull a foot off of the seven-legged Old Lady Lent, who has 7 legs to mark the 7 weeks before Easter—hey, if Germans and German-Americans can have Advent calendars full of chocolate to mark the days, why can’t Mallorcans pull feet off of old ladies? 

Jaia Corema, or “Old Lady Lent,” is a curmudgeonly Mallorcan folk figure, whose history I have been unable to unearth.  I became aware of her existence on Friday when, instead of leading the English class with the 5-year-olds, I was told that we were going to celebrate the first week of Quaresma (Lent) by singing this song:

Sa Jaia Corema

Sa Jaia Corema

ara vindrà

amb unes esgrelles

i un bacallà.

Sa Jaia Corema

set peus té

i cada semana

un n’hi tallaré.

Jaia Corema,

peus petits,

caga en terra

i pixa en es llit.

***

Old Lady Lent

Old Lady Lent

is coming soon

with a grill

and a cod.

Old Lady Lent

has seven feet

and every week

I’ll cut one off.

Old Lady Lent,

who has small feet,

poops on the ground

and pees in bed.

The kids LOVE this song.  They sang the last two lines over and over again, and even mixed it up a little by swapping the words to, “poops in bed and pees on the ground,” followed by gales of laughter.

After the song, the teachers read a story about Jaia Corema (my translated version below), and then the kids got to pull one of the legs off of a paper figure of Jaia Corema.  Each Friday, they get to pull off another leg in anticipation of Easter.  I'm not sure how this tradition started, but the story below illustrates the reason for de-leg-ifying the troublemaking  Old Lady Lent.  Hey, apparently the tradition used to be that when Lent was half over, they would saw a wooden effigy of Jaia Corema in half—I'd say she's getting off pretty easy nowadays.  Only 6 weeks to go!  (5 weeks and 2 days until Easter break, if we’re going to be accurate.)

***

Once there was an old woman named Jaia Corema, or “Old Lady Lent,” who was wrinkled and crotchety and couldn’t stand children.  Jaia Corema lived in a village full of children, and she always grumbled that the children laughed too loudly and were altogether a bother.  Whenever they played too close to her house, she chased them away, shouting and shaking her broom.  There was also a wizard who lived in the village, Xiviu, who was red as an ember, who always told her to leave the children be.  One day, he got tired of warning her to leave the boys and girls alone, and he put a curse on Jaia Corema.  Along with her two long, thin legs, she suddenly grew five more!  The wizard told her that if she became a friend of the village children, he would take away the spell and she would go back to having only two legs.  Jaia Corema promised to be good and Xiviu, who was as red as fire, agreed to lift the spell.  Jaia Corema kept her evil broom hidden and pretended to be nice to the children, and every week, Red Xiviu took away one of her extra legs.  Finally the old lady had just her own two legs, and as soon as Xiviu’s back was turned, she quickly began to chase after the boys and girls with her broom.  The wizard Xiviu, who of course had seen her, was so angry that he took away both of her legs as a punishment for lying to him.  Since then, Jaia Corema has no longer been able to chase after anyone.