On 17 January 2025, shortly after noon, lines began forming at both ends of Plaça Guillemó in Andorra la Vella. People were waiting for hot escudella served for Saint Anthony's Day. According to the city, cooks began work at 5 a.m. over ten fires, using 720 kilograms of meat, 530 kilograms of vegetables and pulses, and 1,500 litres of water to prepare nearly 4,000 portions.
Escudella is a winter stew of meat, beans and vegetables. The city's escudella brotherhood traces this public serving to the early 1970s and to a practice in which merchants distributed food to people in need. Those joining the modern queue are not sorted as recipients of relief. Residents and visitors gather around the same pots and receive the town's memory one bowl at a time.
What distinguishes this queue is how waiting before an enormous communal pot turns local history into a present-day act. The two lines are a practical way to serve thousands, but they also transform an older act of charity into a winter celebration open to everyone.