By Francesco Tirinato - JUMP Team
The approach of the Christmas festivities evokes characteristic moments of a life that also belongs to the past. In this regard, a unique tradition that falls at this time of year and that characterises the charming Calabrian villages linked to the culture and peasant world of the past is known as: the ‘Catamisi’ and the ‘Catamisicchj’.
This is a real prediction made by wise Calabrian farmers to establish the weather conditions for the following year. This prediction was considered vital for the economy of the time, which was based solely on the success of the harvests.
The word Catamisi is a combination of two words ‘kata’, which in the Greek language was also translated by the adverbs ‘up and down’. While ‘misi’ is a word that refers to the ‘month’.
In fact, it is a clear reference to the twelve days preceding Christmas and the twelve days following it.
The ‘Catamisi’ therefore refer to the days from 13 to 24 December, while the ‘Catamisicchj’ to the days from 25 December to 5 January.
According to peasant custom, by carefully and scrupulously observing the weather conditions on all these days, it was possible to predict the weather for the twelve months of the following year.
The prediction began on 13 December, St Lucia’s Day.
Each day of the ‘Catamisi’ and ‘Catamisicch’j corresponded to a month of the following years. The chronological order was as follows:
13 December and 5 January, for example, corresponded to the first and second halves of the following January, 14 December and 4 January corresponded to the first and second halves of February, 15 December and 3 January corresponded to the first and second halves of March, and so on, until 24 and 25 December, which corresponded to the first and second halves of the following December. The picture below clarifies the order of this system…
If, for example, on 16 December (catamisi) and 2 January (catamisicchj) there was good weather, it was a good sign for the corresponding month (in this case April).
If, on the other hand, it was raining and windy, it meant that April would be stormy.
Of course, it could also happen that any day of the Catamisi was sunny and the corresponding day of the Catamissichj was cloudy.
In that case, for the peasants the first 15 days of the corresponding month would be sunny and the next 15 unstable.
As if that were not enough, after carrying out analyses and observations during the 24 days, on the night of 5 January (known as the ‘Night of the Baptism of the Weather’) the peasants would go out into the open air at the stroke of midnight and carefully scan the direction of the clouds and winds for at least five minutes.
This observation was the final act in any weather forecast.
If the clouds followed the direction of the east wind, abundant harvests were expected.
If the clouds followed the direction of the libeccio (south-west wind) there would be a bad harvest; whereas no forecast could be made if the clouds followed the direction of the west.
These predictions, even if they did not guarantee all the expected results, certainly had a symbolic and superstitious character that filled the eyes with anxiety about the future and at the same time could give some hope and peace of mind to the spirit of the men and women of Calabria who were inextricably linked to the good performance of agriculture.
It should be noted that this stratagem was also a point of reference in other areas of life: organising business meetings, travelling, celebrating weddings, etc.
This tradition is very old and now fallen into disuse, but it is worth recounting and spreading it so that the younger generations can savour once again the authenticity and fragility of the old farming world that never took the clock of the seasons off its wrist.
Photos by:
https://www.gallerialaveronica.it/artworks/moira-ricci-252-dove-il-cielo-e-piu-vicino-conta/#&gid=1&pid=1
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/amp/pin/571253533954928673/
