GUEST BLOG: Estevan Arellano on Cabañuelas

Cabañuelas:  Jewish and Mayan Meteorology Traditions Combined

Juan Estevan Arellano

Before there was TV or radio, people used to rely on nature, the stars, sun and other natural phenomena to better understand when to plant or how much seed to commit to the soil. Part of that knowledge is embedded in the system known to New Mexicans as “reading” the cabañuelas.

For the early settlers that braved the “Jornada del Muerto,” or Journey of the Dead, from Mexico to northern New Mexico in 1598, it wasn’t simply a matter of finding good soil and water to plant in order to survive, it also meant learning to understand nature and its environs and applying the knowledge they brought with them to a new site. After all the sun, the moon, the stars were all the same and the arid landscape was similar to that of Mexico, Spain and the Middle East.

This knowledge of place, or querencia, ran through their blood, they also had this empirical knowledge of the weather, a knowledge that is basically oral.

“January has the secret of all twelve months,” or so says an old proverb in Spanish. Or it could be that the month is August, depending on what part of the Spanish-speaking world one lives in. For here the dicho is referring to the reading of the cabañuelas, which people still “read” to predict the weather for the coming year.

But they were also pragmatic, that is, they had to rely on the cabañuelas from someone who was a real farmer, not simply an arm chair observer, for they say hombre lunero no llena granero (men who spend too much time observing the moon, don’t fill up the granery), o labrador con mucha astronomía en eso se pasa el día (or farm laborer who spends his time in astronomy, in the meantime the day goes by). Before there was TV or radio people used to rely on nature, the stars, sun and other natural phenomena to better understand when to plant or how much seed to commit to the soil.

And though a lot of the refranes, sayings, are part of our Arab past, most have now become Christianized, that is, most now refer to the Christian calendar, though the knowledge was embedded in the Calendario de Córdoba, Calendario anónoimo andalusí, and the Tratado de los meses of Ibn Asimor and other calendars such as those from Yemen. For example, garlic is usually planted by San Martín, or the 11th of November, fabas usually by San Lucas, 18th of October, and the winter vegetables should be transplanted by Santiago, July 25th.

January comes from the pagan god, Janus, which signifies “door,” from the separation of space and time (eones, from the Greek aion). It usually has two faces, the past and the future, sometimes a face of a man and that of a woman, or the duality of nature. Farmers would look to the moon, when it was a quarter moon, to look for answers and to whether it would rain or not.

If the quarter moon would be on its belly it meant it would be dry but if the moon was tipped towards the bottom it meant it would rain. Or in the winter if there was a flock of crows hovering real close to the ground, and crowing, it meant a snow storm was on its way. Then people were very observant of nature because understanding nature could mean the difference between  a good harvest or a lean winter.

At the beginning of the New Year there was usually some individual in the village who could “read” what is known as cabañuelas, or predicting the weather for the whole year. In general the cabañuelistas don’t want rain at the beginning of the year for it’s a bad omen, for they say that the cabañuela “se vacia,” o “se revienta,” that is, that the cabañuela “empties,” or “bursts.”

Before people would be very observant of their surrounding, they would take into account the color of the sky when the sun was going down in the west. If the color of the sky was light pink, a pale yellow or grayish, it usually signified a change in the weather. But if the sky is an intense blue, it signifies heavy winds in the upper atmosphere.

Outdoors, if the goats are eating and moving rapidly it means an impending storm is coming and if the cows lie down to eat, it means a rain storm is on its way. If the cat is washing his face or if the frogs croak louder than usual, that usually means rain. In the summer if the roses smell more intense, it means there is a low pressure but if the smoke spirals straight up in winter it signifies atmospheric stability.

Changes in the weather are usually observed by paying attention to the barn animals; if the rooster sings at midday,  or the barn animals are very tranquil, or people have pain in the joints changes in the weather are coming; and when the cats are running and jumping all of a sudden expect wind.

And when we delve into how the weather was predicted in the past, the cabañuelas, we have to reach back into our Sephardic past, since they are Jewish in origin. Cabañuelas is a festival of Jews in Toledo celebrated in August in memory of the 40 days they spent in the desert known as the feast of the Tabernacles or of the cabañuelas. But here in the Americas the Cabañuelas became Americanized; that is, they were influenced by the Mayas.  Cabañuelas seems to be exclusive to the Spanish speaking world, from Spain, the Canary Islands to northern New Mexico to Mexico, and Cuba, they observe this tradition. Generally, a great variety of climate is observed at the beginning of the year and people have adopted a way of prognosticating the weather.

In parts of Spain, including the Canary Islands, the cabañuelas are still observed in the month of August, with the first of the month known as, “llave del año,” or the “key to the year.” Agriculturalists think that the first of January, or August, depending when the cabañuelas are read, give a glimpse as to what the weather will be for the upcoming year. Then the cabañuelas are started on the second of  January or August, with that date representing January, the third February, the fourth March until the 13th represents December.

To “read” the Cabañuelas copious notes are needed, if not written mental ones should be taken, during the month of January, or August (how they were done originally). The first day of the month then represents January the “key to the year,” the second is January, and so on until you get to the 13th, which represents December. Then you start counting backyards, that is, the 14th represents December, the 15th November, until you get to the 25th, which is January.

Then the 26th represents January and February, 12 hours for each day. The 27th  March and April, and so on, until the 31th represented November and December. But if the first is not observed as “llave del año,” then the 31st is broken into two hours to represent each month.

Now let’s look at a sample cabañuelas:

         “Llave del año,” key to the year, Jan. 1st. Since the wind blew all day from the north, this cabañuela is considered very negative; therefore a bad year.

         January: Second of January, windy, moisture in the morning, represents a very dry cabañuela.

         February: 3rd of January, swift wind, towards noon wind shifted north, normal month. There’s a saying that reads, “febrero loco, marzo poco,” February is very unpredictable and March is sort of the same.”

         March: 4th of January, bad weather, north wind, very dry.

         April: 5th of January, same as before, windy and dry, not much of a chance for rain.

         May: 6th of January, uncertain cabañuela, bad sign.

         June: 7th of January, easterly wind most of the day, good omen.

         July: 8th of January, another bad day, windy and dry, not much hope of rain.

         August: 9th of January, another bad month, same as the previous day.

         September: 10th of January, regular, morning not much wind.

         October: 11th of January, good but no rain.

         November: 12th of January, dry, bad cabañuela, sunny all day.

         December: 13th of January, same as the day before.

If the first of January is not observed as “llave del año,” or “key to the year,” then the cabañuelas can start on the first of the year. But in order to understand the cabañuelas, or to “read” them properly the person has to know where the wind is coming from. During cabañuelas if the rastrojo or stubble on the fields is “correoso” flexible or leathery in the morning, it means clouds; if the grapes are moist, it signifies cold.

The cabañuelas are a system of predicting the weather for the forth coming year of an experimental basis, based on observation, nothing scientific, but usually very accurate. They can also be said to be a ritual of creation and regeneration for they are based on the vast amount of knowledge that the agriculturalist has about his space, especially his individual micro climate, his querencia. Example, the cabañuelas for Taos will not be the same as those for Santa Fe or Albuquerque, much less Las Cruces. Cabañuelas apply only to the micro climate where the individual agriculturalist is reading them and it takes years and generations passed on orally to acquire this knowledge.

But it was not only the Jews, the Muslims or Christians who kept track of the cabañuelas, as noted earlier the Muslims had their “almanaques,” or calendars, while the Christians followed the Jewish tradition of the cabañuelas only they substituted Saints days.

Meanwhile the Mayans call the Cabañuelas Chac-chac, and they are observed in the same manner. The months from January to December is known as Xoc-kin, and from December to January Ualak-xoe. The Cabañuelas are kept to predict how the weather will be, and that way the farmers will know when it will rain or be dry, when it will be hot or cold. It is believed that in prehispanic Mexico the Aztecs adopted this knowledge from the Mayas, which was later adopted into the Christian calendar. This was based on an oral tradition; example, if the 9th of January reads as it being cloudy, temperate, showers, someone will probably say, “we are in the cabañuela of September.” Then the following day might be windy, kind of cold, someone will then explain, “we are in the cabañuela of October.”

The system is kind of complicated. Let’s take for example the month of June; we know that the month is represented by the 6th and 19th of January; the afternoon and night of the 27th and the hours of 12 noon to 1:59 in the afternoon of the 31st. This way we will be able to know when it will rain, which months will be the hottest, when it will be cold, when it will freeze.

It must be kept in mind that the cabañuelas do not fail us, it’s us who do not fully understand them in order to interpret them. The word cabañuelas comes from “cabin,” since the Jews were in search of the Promised Land for after 40 years in the desert they became very observant of which years the cows were lean and when they were fat. In some parts of the Spanish speaking world there are the Cabañuelas de Santa Lucía, observed from the 13th of December to the 6th of January.

For the urban folk, talking about cabañuelas is something exotic which they can’t relate to, while those in smaller cities might have heard of the term, but for sure those in rural areas are familiar at least with the word if nothing else. For no one knows exactly where the term came from, but it is believed it came from Zamuc, or “Fiesta de las Suertes,” the feast of luck, from the Babylonian calendar, which in Jewish translates to the “Fiesta of the Tabernacle.”