#tintobre

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Inktober day 11: Vella Quaresma

Vella Quaresma, also known as Jaia Quaresma (in Mallorca) and Àvia Quaresma (in Menorca) is the representation of Lent in the Catalan Countries, her name translates literally to "Old Lady Lent" or "Grandma Lent".

Lent, in Christianity is the 40 day period between Ash Wednesday and Holy Thursday. It's a time of fasting and abstinence, mirroring the 40 days Jesus spent alone in the desert. In Catalonia it's tradition to not eat meat and instead eat fish, specially on fridays.

Vella Quaresma, as said before, is the representation of Lent and the opposite of "Rei Carnestoltes" (King Carnival), who's a character who presides all activities during Carnival just before Lent. While Rei Carnestoltes represents fun and transgression, Vella Quaresma represents abstinence and penitence.

Vella Quaresma is represented as an old woman dressed in common people's clothes with seven legs. She's normally holding either a) a cod and a basket full of chards, b) a cod in each hand, c) a cod and a skillet or d) seven "arengades" (sardines salted with brine). Her seven legs represent the seven weeks of Lent, and at the end of each week a leg is cut off.

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(Enllaç al tuit)

An Inktober idea list based on Catalan mythology.

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Inktober day 4: Fada

Fada means fairy in catalan, but they're not really like pixies or the like. In catalan mythology, fairies refers to water spirits who live in a number of water bodies (be it rivers, springs, lakes or ravines). These spirits are called a myriad of names depending on the region, some of the most common are "dona d'aigua" (water woman), "dona de fum i d'aigua" (smoke and water woman), "aloja", "goja", "encantada"(bewitched) or "paitida".

These spirits are said to be very beautiful women who brush their long hair under the moonlight with a gold comb. In most of the legends they appear they either gift riches to someone as a thank you, although if the gifted tells anyone where their riches came from, those will turn to coal; or they marry a human man and give him riches until the man reveals her true nature to others, to which in response she flees with the riches and the man's life end up in ruin. It is also told that if you are able to take a piece of clothing from them and put it to dry, you'll become rich.

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Inktober day 3: Gambutzí

Gambutzí (also known as "gambosí") is a little being without a set apperance found in multiple regions of the Iberian peninsula and is used to play pranks on kids, hunters or newbie fishermen. The most common prank is telling somebody that the gambutzí is an elusive animal that can only be caught during a starry night.

It is said that gumbutzins like to get close to populated areas to observe the people and mimic them, and when they're seen by a human they laugh and make fun of them. Some people say that they also howl and dance under the full moon.

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Inktober day 2: Lo Marraco

Lo Marraco is a kind of "espantamainades" (imaginary beings meant to scare kids to teach life lessons, kinda like a bogeyman) from the city of Lleida. It's also used to scare children in Maestrat and Menorca, where is called "Marreco" It's a western green lizard the size of a dragon with a very, very big mouth with which it uses to eat kid's pacifiers.

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Inktober day 13: Maruga

Maruga is a miniature being that lives in fresh water, be it rivers or lakes, who enters the body of maidens who drink it's water. Once inside Maruga will pinch them and leave the maiden pregnant.

There's a corranda (a type of song dansed by couples) from Alt Empordà that says:

"Ai noies que aneu a l'aigua, que aneu a rentar a la Muga: mireu que us heu de guardar d'un pessic de sa Maruga."

Which translates to:

"Oh girls who go to the water, who go to wash at Muga: look out for a pinch from Maruga."

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Inktober day 10: Home de neu

Home de neu (snow man), also known as "Gegant de la neu" (Giant of the snow), comes from a story told in the comarques (Catalonia's internal divisions) of Ripollès and Cerdanya.

The story goes that and old childless marriage had to get on their house's roof to take down the snow that had accumulated after a seven day long snowstorm. The snow fell in front of the door and while the husband worked, the wife made a little snowman, which she after dressed with girl clothes. This snowman came to life, to the couple's utmost surprise. They decided to raise the snowgirl as their own child, but unfortunetly when spring came, the snowgirl melted like the rest of snow. The next winter, they tried again, this time but making a boy. But like the snowgirl the year before, the snowboy also melted once spring came.

The couple tried year after year, but the result didn't change, when spring came by the snowkid would melt without exception. One year, though, they decided to make a giant snowman, so with his size and strength could help with chores and heavy lifting until spring came. But once it came to life, the snowgiant ripped off his clothes, ate all the food the couple had and then fled to the snowy mountains, where snow never melts. Now the snowgiant lives there all year and only comes back down, running on snowy tops, when the first snoflakes start to fall.

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Inktober day 1: Cocollona

Ok, this year I'm really gonna do this Inktober about catalan mythology.

Anyways, Cocollona was originally a nun in Girona, who was imprisoned in the monastery's dungeons after being accused about lacking faith towards the Lord. After years of hunger and isolation, she started to grow scales until she became a crocodile-like creature and because she was still saintly she also grew a pair of beautiful butterfly wings. After her death her ghost can be seen near the river Onyar (the river that crosses Girona) but only on full moon nights.