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Cabanuelas
Fri Dec 09, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
During La Fiesta de las Cabanuelas, Mexican folklore says that weather conditions for
the coming year are revealed. Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook.
"Cabanuelas" derives from the Spanish word "cabana," meaning a small cabin, or
shelter. Weather lore tells us that the twelve days of Cabanuelas house the weather
forecast.
Each of the twelve cabins represents a month's worth of weather, and weather at the
cabins is observed for twelve consecutive days. For example, if the first day of
Cabanuelas is January 1st, that day's weather foretells the weather for January.
January 2nd foretells February, and so on through the twelve cabins.
So, if the first day of Cabanuelas dawns sunny, becomes hot at midday, and cloudy
and cooler in the afternoon, then January will begin mostly sunny, become warm up
through mid-month and end with cloudy, cool weather.
Cabanuelas has several incarnations across Latin America. One observes the festival
from December 13th to the 24th. These are the cabins to "rights," and are the prime
prognosticators. But starting on Christmas Day, a second set of cabins "rataculas" is
used, working backward: The 25th portends the next December's weather, the 26th,
November, and so on. This second set is used as a quality assurance check on the
primary forecast.
Cabanuelas' roots can be found in Arab and Jewish influences on Spanish culture,
which came to the New World with colonization. Similar lore can be found in Cuba, the
Dominican Republic, Central America, and Venezuela, as well as the English "Twelve
Days of Christmas."
Thanks to our contributing writer, meteorologist Keith Heidorn. Our show is produced
by the Mount Washington Observatory. We are funded by Subaru and The National
Science Foundation. Special funding comes from Davis weather instruments, at
www.davisnet.com.
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