“Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is so named because of the special rite of sprinkling the ashes of burnt palm (or Palm) branches left over from Palm (Palm) Sunday of the previous year on the heads of the faithful at Masses on this day. The rite symbolizes repentance, humility and the frailty of human existence.
On this day there is a curious ritual, the “Funeral of the Sardine”, which is a procession parodying a funeral procession and ending with the burning of an effigy of a sardine. The ritual symbolizes saying goodbye to the past and making room for all the new, good and bright things that the new year brings.
Incidentally, the great Spanish painter Francisco Goya dedicated a painting called “The Funeral of the Sardine” to the event.
Where did the tradition of the “sardine funeral” come from? There are several versions. The first says that the custom appeared three centuries ago in Madrid. People then also gathered in the streets on the first day of Lent and arranged a symbolic “funeral” of the past. However, they did not bury fish at all, but a piglet slaughtered in a special way, which was called “cerdina”. Over time, the “cerdina” became “sardina”, then the slaughtered pig was replaced by a stuffed fish, and the ritual became what we see today.
Another version says that King Carlos III wanted to organize lavish celebrations at the end of Carnival week and ordered a large shipment of sardines to be brought to the city for the festivities. The day was very hot (even though it was winter) and the fish had spoiled and began to give off a stifling odor. The king’s subjects thought of nothing better than to bury the sardine in the Casa de Campo. After that, the ritual became an annual event.