The Weather
In rural parts of Malta and Gozo, locals engage in a curious form of weather forecasting in the days leading up to Christmas: from St. Lucy's Day, December 13, to Christmas Eve, December 24, cloud formations and weather conditions on each successive day are said to presage or approximate the weather conditions of one specific month of the following year. The signs observed on these twelve days are referred to as l-irwiegel ("the rules"). In this instance we can drawn an immediate parallel with a local Sicilian tradition and proverb: "Di li carènnuli si canusci l'annata - Li dudici misi di l'anni novu si cumincianu di li dudici jorna prima di Natali". Variations of this customs also appear in Normandy and in other parts of Northern Europe.
Read more about this topic: Maltese Folklore
Famous quotes containing the word weather:
“Wind, the season-climate mixer,
In my Witches’ Weather Primer
Says, to make this Fall Elixir
First you let the summer simmer....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“This is the weather the cuckoo likes,
And so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,
And nestlings fly:”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)