March 17 - 18: Purple for Lent (Oliviera de Azemeis & Malaposta)

I spent much of today’s walk sketching out another couple of podcasts. We were at 8km before I finished my voice notes. It felt good to get some of these camino thoughts down. AI transcription is a game-changer, though there is plenty of manual editing, rewriting, reference sourcing to do when we get home.

We are 2 days out from Porto, definitely in “camino” territory (St James or Fatima). Today the trail took us on several detours to crumbling hamlets, witnessing both their former magnificence and current ruin. There is so much history that, in these places, all they can afford to do is label the decay. “I am Ozymandias, King of Kings”…

It is definitely a stage to contemplate human hubris, how Time takes all things. Perhaps related, today I walked singing Titiyo’s “Come Along with me”. It’s a ‘90s Eastern European anthem – and treatise on being human: “Play with it while you have hands. Time passes. Cities turn to sand.” Google it. There are several versions on Youtube.

Our short day today took us past many churches, and many homes, with crosses draped in Roman Purple, marking Lent. My reaction is/was that this is “too early”. In my head, purple is for Kingship, for Triumph. It comes only AFTER the Crucifixion, Lent is, conversely, a time of loss, humility, even humiliation – a sober time of reflection, self-reckoning.

Some googling showed me that my default context is the Eastern Orthodox tradition (not a surprise for those who know my journey): where black is used for Lent (on weekdays). Purple is for weekends. Other key days are marked with white or red. Many Anglicans (and Lutherans) also reserve purple for Sundays in Lent.

Perhaps this is why it “feels wrong” (to me) to “celebrate” the horror, the weight, of Lent with purple. But, walking through this alternate tradition, I do also see the un-risen Christ’s "human" example, if you will, (courage, purpose, leadership, acceptance) is also (perhaps even more so) “kingly”: grand, inspirational, towering. I am still working on this, but it is a precious new thing for the journey.

Our watches show 415km versus the official 356km, cumulative. I’ve been asked how we can be so far “off” the expected distance. We are, truly, following the trail, but there are several factors IRL:
· Every day, we still have to find our accommodation, a supermarket, restaurant/bar (or all three). Exploring your rest stop adds up, (even though we exclude rest days);
· We detour. We walk round a church; explore a fountain; seek out a view, or hunt down a mid-walk coffee;
· We get lost! With poor blazes/waymarkers, we can easily go the wrong way a while, before doubling-back;
· Safety first! We often choose to walk down to lights or crossing markers rather than march straight across often busy intersections;
· Flooding. Bush-whacking more viable options, ditching deep-mud stretches of trail for tracks/roads offering better/drier footing always adds distance (and is always worth it!).

These things add up.