During the year and, particularly, in winter and its harsh climate, groups of the needy begged from house to house in the villages, asking the dwellers for alms or handouts in kind or food (eggs, chorizo sausage, bacon, black pudding, walnuts, hazelnuts, pears, apples, oranges, etc.). That intrinsic act of Christian charity or the traditional hospitality of the people of the rural world was usually met with the beggars politely and gratefully expressing wishes of health and prosperity in return.
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