Georgia: Snails, Part 2

Snail in Rustavi, Georgia

"Do Catholics eat snails during Lent?" I asked my hostess.

"I don't know. But I have a Catholic neighbor." she replied.

"Will you ask her?" I said.

Hours passed.

My cultural informant reported in: "Catholics eat snails during Lent," she said.

"They only eat snails in spring. They dig them up from the ground. This is because when snails go underground in the winter, they 'clean themselves out' so there is no excrement in their systems. If you wait until the snails re-emerge from the earth, they will have already begun to eat and have waste in their systems, and the Catholics don't have a way to cleanse their systems."

A loose end tied.