Las Cabañuelas

The other day my Grandfather told me about las cabañuelas. It is a system of predicting the weather for the entire year in the month of January. It is something he said the old timers would do and it's been going on for  ever. This is how he said it was done: The first twelve days of January correspond with the twelve months. During the first twelve days you write what the weather is like on that day: raining, sunny, if the temperature is average or above or below average.  I looked this up and read it is a system that was  passed from generation to generation since the Mayans. There is more to it but my Grandmother said the rest is so repetitive and it's all right there in the first twelve days, "Just pay attention,  Mija, and write it all down, everything."

So far, February will have a mild northern wind so it will still be cold here, mostly sunny days. March and April will have rainfall and milder temperatures than normal but increasing to average temperatures towards the end of the month. So it seems we'll have a nice Spring with rain. What is exciting is an arctic blast  is heading our way on those days that correspond with September-December. I might just go ahead and use the entire month to record the weather and do it correctly just as an experiment. It isn't complicated, just have to "write it all down, everything".

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5 Comments:

Blogger sally said...

hi tera! this is great! i love that your abuelos remember this kind of thing. if i apply that to sf, we are gonna have a freeeeeezing first 5 months of the year! ;) it's been bone chillingly cold here.

i have heard of something only somewhat similar that the frenchies do, which is record what happens the first 12 days of the year and those will correspond with each month and what the month will be like, life-wise. i have actually tried doing it before and it didn't seem to work one bit! :)

still, both of these concepts are fun to think about!

Wednesday, January 05, 2011  
Blogger Jedimommy said...

This is so interesting - I think I'll start recording the weather up here in Wisconsin. And I loved reading how the 31st of January is revered because that is my birthday! My father and grandfather always used nature to predict the weather: red sunrises and sunsets; gray or white frost; rain making bubbles in puddles and "rain before 7, clear before 11." Of course that last one isn't accurate because it rained all day long on my wedding day.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011  
Anonymous Francesca said...

So interesting! My 80+ farmer neighbor is always predicting the weather (and usually gets it right), but her husband maintains that you can't predict (or change) either people or the weather.

Friday, January 07, 2011  
Blogger Karen said...

I will be interested in a summary of your findings, er, prediction for 2011 weather!

Friday, January 07, 2011  
Blogger Tera said...

Karen-We'll see how it goes :>

Tuesday, January 11, 2011  

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