A special event with over 500 years of history. The Purgatory Lunch that takes place in Gradoli every year on Ash Wednesday finds its origins in the sixteenth century when the Brotherhood of Purgatory began to organize it as a fundraiser to help families in difficulty in the country and still today the meaning is substantially the same .
It all begins on the morning of Shrove Thursday when some members of the Brotherhood, dressed in the traditional brown habit, purple cape and hood, cross the village requesting offers of all kinds that will be auctioned in a lively auction in the town square, the proceeds will then be used. for the purchase of what is needed for the preparation of the Lunch to be held on Ash Wednesday.
About two thousand people from Gradoli and neighboring towns meet at 1 pm on this particular Wednesday in the large room of the Cantina-Oleificio Sociale di Gradoli. All diners must arrive equipped as usual with dishes, bread and wine. The other great peculiarity of this lunch concerns the menu, strictly the same for five hundred years: purgatory beans, rice soup with tench sauce, stewed pike, fried hake, boiled cod, apple. The proceeds, after deducting expenses, are used for cultural activities as well as for social services as per tradition.