Cabañuelas

Cabañuelas, NMAA

Cabañuelas: Forecasting the Entire Year

By Juan Estevan Arellano

For the early settlers who braved the “Jornada del Muerto,” in 1598, it was not simply a matter of finding good soil and water to plant in order to survive, it also meant learning to understand nature and their new environs and applying the knowledge they brought with them to this new homeland.Reading the sun, the moon, and the stars was an old tradition, one that could be easily applied to new worlds and geographies. The arid landscape of New Mexico was similar to that of Mexico, Spain and the Middle East. The settlers brought with them knowledge of place, or querencia, that ran through their blood. This knowledge included the sacred triumvirate of water, weather, and land passed down fromfather to son and mother to daughter in an oral tradition that was accumulated from those with whom the settlers came into contact, an accretion of knowledge that was life sustaining.

“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: In New Mexico thedicho is referring to the reading of the cabañuelas, which people still use to predict the weather for the coming year. The cabañuelas is the name given to the first twelve days of January. Each of these days in turn will indicate the kind of weather that will be produced in the following months. Though no one knows for sure where the term originated, it may have come from Zamuc, or “Fiesta de lasSuertes,” the feast of luck, from the Babylonian calendar, which in Hebrew translates to the Fiesta of the Tabernacle. The word cabañuelas comes from the word cabaña, a shelter, small cabin or house, or tabernacle and the twelve days "house" the prognostication. La fiesta de las cabañuelas is of Jewish origin but is of mixed cultural heritage. Arab and Jewish cultures were a part of the Spanishheritage brought to the Americas and transplanted in New Mexico.

People have always relied on nature, the stars, sun and other natural phenomena to better understand when to plant or how much seed to commit to the soil. Many of the refranes (sayings) about the weather and planting that came from Muslim Spain where embedded in the Calendario de Córdoba, Calendario anónoimo andalusí, and the Tratadode los meses of Ibn Asimor as well as the calendars from Yemen and other non-Christian areas. Much of this knowledge has now become Christianized, that is, most of this knowledge has been adapted to the Christian calendar. For example today, 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 betransplanted by Santiago, July 25th.

Cabañuelas is also known as the feast of the Tabernacles (cabañuelas),
a festival of Jews in Spain celebrated in August in memory of the 40
days Jews spent in the desert looking for the Promised Land. From this
experience came a keen knowledge of the weather and of the harvest.
Cabañuelas seems to be exclusive to the Spanish speaking world, from
Spain to theCanary Islands, to Cuba, to Mexico and finally to northern
New Mexico. Although the weather varies from country to country,
people have adopted a way of prognosticating the weather using the
cabañuelas.

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.
But it was not only the Jews, the Muslims or Christians who kept track
of the cabañuelas. January, which holds the secret of all twelve months,
comes from the pagan god, Janus, which signifies “door,” from the
separation of...