Doña Cuaresma

Once Carnival ends here there another tradition for Lent, is called Doña Cuaresma o Mrs. Lent. She's represented an old woman with 7 legs carrying the tale of a cod, as this one here from a 18th century engrave.
I think the tradition came as a visual helper so illiterate people could properly count the weeks of Lent until Semana Santa or Easter week starts, as the custom is to take one leg off every Friday until Doña Cuaresma has no legs.

Here the Carnaval finishes with a sort of mock funeral called "el entierro de la sardina" the burial of the sardine, when people dress in black and in a pretend sort of burial burn a paper or wood sculture of a sardine that represent the end of the good pagan times. Then Mrs. Lent, Doña Cuaresma, takes over and all goes back to normal for a few days until is time for all the Spanish drama of Semana Santa. She's also carrying the tail of a cod as a reminder that people shouldn't eat meat for all those days.

I love the fact that I'm still discovering new traditions and things going on here.
I asked "the husband" to cook at least once a month and on Saturday he prepared one recipe from our Catalan Cuisine recipe book. Something that people use here to kick-start Lent. He prepared a fantastic deep-fried cod very special as the batter was made with flour and honey. Just that, mix flour and enough honey to get a runny batter, then dip the cod and fry it. It wasn't as sweet as it sounded an it was totally delicious.