In Sardinia there is a special bread , which today fascinates (and sometimes unsettles!) those who see it for the first time.
Once the protagonist of the weeks of Lent , it represents a girl with 7 legs . It is called " Sa Pipia de Caresima " and by now there are fewer and fewer people who prepare it. But the tradition linked to this ancient doll lives on in the memory of those who, as a child, prepared it. And it often happens that this little girl peeps into the homes of those who still want to knead flour, semolina, water, yeast and salt to keep an ancient custom alive.
After all, the island has always been a treasure trove of rituals and customs which (often) marked the passage of time , the seasons, the years, when the hands of clocks did not yet exist. But not only that: they kept communities together, gave hope and helped to spread a generous pinch of "magic" in everyday life. The mixture of myths, legends and millenary culinary art has given life to "Sa Pipia".
The little girl was "born" with S'Arretiru , at the end of Carnival: the sound of the bells at midnight on Shrove Tuesday presaged the arrival of Ash Wednesday , and with it the beginning of Lent . The Sardinians were therefore preparing to face a period of restrictions , fasts and deprivations, as if to pay the price for the opulence of the carnival weeks. This is how the doll with its characteristic shape came to life: in fact there were 7 legs - to represent the 7 Lenten Sundays - and one was detached every week. Families used Sa Pipia as a calendar : the last leg was taken off on Easter day. And tradition has it that the child, having finished her function, was burned . This symbolized the farewell to the period of “penance” and the arrival of the “ resurrection ”. In some areas of Sardinia the little girl was accompanied by a male figure: Giuanni Spadinu . The gentleman, with a sword in his hand, protected his better half from dangers and pitfalls.
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