SONGS OF THE HEN BLACKBIRD
The last three days in January are
called “the days of the hen blackbird”. According to the tradition, they’re the
coldest day of the year.
A legend says that a blackbird wanted
to find shelter for its babies (they had white feathers) in a chimney. They
came out the first day of february, looking all black because of the soot.
Another legend tells the story of a
white bird which gathered food to stay hidden for the whole month of January,
which was once 28 days long.
The last day she came out of the nest
to sing and the month of January, angry, borrowed three days from February and
scattered snow storms, heavy showers and wind on the earth. So the bird stayed
other three days in a chimney and came out looking all black forever.
They say that if the last three
days of January are cold, spring will be beautiful, if they are mild, spring
will be delayed.
People living on the plains around
Cremona, Brescia, Parma and Lodi used to sing beautiful popular songs to favour
the harvest and a good spring. While singing, they produced loud noises and
sounds hitting pans and buckets to scare the winter away.
Nowadays people still gather on the
banks of the river Adda to sing the “songs of the hen blackbird”, after that
they celebrate eating the most traditonal dishes of their villages (polenta
with sausages, typical cakes).
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