Traditionally, with “Days of the Blackbird” are meant the 29, 30 and 31 Januarywhich according to popular beliefs would be the coldest of the yeareven if the peak of the winter cold in Italy does not necessarily fall on those three days, especially in the South.
There are various versions of the popular legend which gives rise to the name and the tradition: the best known one sees a blackbird hiding in a chimney on January 28th to escape the cold, coming out on February 1st. There is also a sort of proverb linked to the Blackbird Days: if they are cold, spring will be mild; if they are mild, spring will be colder. But this popular wisdom does not necessarily find direct confirmation in Italian meteorological statistics.
What are the three Blackbird Days and when do they fall?
Blackbird Days are therefore not a real meteorological concept: they are one popular ritual tradition which essentially associates the end of the harshest phase of winter with the end of January, assigning the last three days of this month (29, 30 and 31 January) the “final blow” of the winter cold before the season turns towards more spring-like conditions.
In some ways it is therefore an analogue of the so-called “Indian summer”which associates November 11th (St. Martin’s Day) with a temporary suspension of the autumn cold. While a period of warmth between the first two decades of November in Italy is a more systematic and easily recognizable phenomenon in weather statistics, however, the Blackbird Days do not find a direct comparison with the actual meteorological dynamics of this period of the year and therefore should be understood more as a folklore phenomenonprobably linked to a collective need to mark a moment that indicates the approach of spring.
The origins of the legend and the meaning of the name
The symbolism of the blackbird as a harbinger of spring already existed in Greek mythology, particularly in myth of Persephone. The god of the underworld Hades, who fell in love with Persephone, kidnapped her, taking her with him to the underworld, taking her away from her mother Demeter. However, thanks to an intervention by Zeus, Persephone’s father, an agreement was reached between Hades and Demeter: Persephone would be with him for six months of the year, and with her mother for the other six months. This myth is in fact an allegory ofalternation of the seasons and, in this sense, Persephone’s return symbolizes the arrival of spring. In the mythological tale, Persephone announces her return to Demeter by sending her messenger animal: a blackbird. This bird is therefore associated with the anticipation of the beautiful season. The Greek myth was then absorbed by Latin culture (in which Persephone took the name of Proserpina), and from there into Italian culture.
Once entered into folklore, the blackbird symbol gives rise to several versions of one legend which connects this bird to the last three days of January. The most widespread version of this legend tells of a blackbird and her chicks, with white plumage, who hid in a chimney on January 28, to escape the winter cold. They would then get dirty with soot and, once released on February 1st, they would be completely black.
In another version of the legend, the blackbird (this time alone) hides in the chimney for most of January and only comes out at the end, thinking that she has managed to escape winter, mocking it and boasting. Winter doesn’t take it well and, to teach it a lesson, he asks to borrow three days in February, in which it brings back cold, snow and ice.
A different story is proposed by Sebastiano Pauli in his Tuscan sayings refined in their origin (1740) and features a cannon called “the MerlaIts owners would have had to wait until the last days of January to be able to transport it from one bank of the Po to the other. Only at that time, in fact, would the river have frozen due to the freezing cold.
A final story deals with the story of two young spouses, Blackbird and Merlaforced to cross the Po to return home. Again it is the end of January and the river is frozen. Unfortunately in Merlo’s passage the slab gives way under the weight of the young man who falls into the water and dies. The young bride, surviving but widowed, cries so much that her cries become part of the river. It is said, in fact, that even today it is possible to hear her crying on the nights of late January.
The proverb of the coldest days of the year according to science
In popular culture, the temperatures of the Blackbird Days act as a bit of an “indicator” of how quickly spring will arrive. A well-known proverb associated with this time of year actually says that if the Blackbird Days are cold, the spring will be beautiful and mild; if they are warm, however, spring will arrive late and will be harsh.
Conceptually, this falls into the category of proverbs related to weather forecasts based on anticipatory signalsa bit like «Hopefully good weather in the evening» or «Heavens of sheep, rain in buckets». While these are proverbs about predictions a few hours away, and in fact are considered reliable from a scientific point of view, in the case of the Blackbird Days it is very difficult to find justification for a prediction made at such a long distance. It is indeed substantially random correlate the temperatures at the end of January with those at the end of March.
Weather statistics of the Blackbird Days
In Italy the coldest period of the year is approximately from January 15th to February 15thdepending on the area and latitude. In some way, the tradition of the Blackbird Days therefore “averages” the climatology of the Peninsula by placing the peak of the cold in the middle of this period, that is, in the last three days of January.
The reason for this “spread” lies in the fact that Italy is surrounded by the seaand its climatological effects are felt more in the southern regions than in the northern ones. In fact, in the North the climate is more similar to that continentalwhile that of the Center-South is more maritime.
After the winter solstice, solar radiation gradually increases, both in terms of heat received and length of day. This in itself would lead to a general increase in temperatures, but we must take that into account the sea has enormous thermal inertia: in December-February it still incorporates part of the heat accumulated during the warmest semester, reaching a surface thermal minimum only in February-March. This means that in January the sea still has a mitigating effect which influences the climatology of Southern Italy more, where the minimum temperatures tend to be recorded more in February than in January.
Here are the data MeteoExpert on the decades of minimum temperatures in the Italian macro-areas in the climatological reference period 1991-2020:
- North-West: second-third ten days of January (average minimum temperature: 1.2 °C; average maximum temperature: 8.3 °C);
- North-East: second-third ten days of January (average minimum temperature: 0.9 °C; average maximum temperature: 8.0 °C);
- Center: third ten days of January – first of February (average minimum temperature: 3.0 °C; average maximum temperature: 11.5 °C);
- South: first-second ten days of February (average minimum temperature: 6.0 °C; average maximum temperature: 13.2 °C);
- Sardinia: first-second ten days of February (average minimum temperature: 7.7 °C; average maximum temperature: 14.0 °C);
- Sicily: first-second ten days of February (average minimum temperature: 8.9 °C; average maximum temperature: 14.8 °C).
In short, if it is true that the Blackbird Days actually fall around the period in which the minimum temperatures are recorded in Italy, It is not certain that January 29, 30 and 31 are actually the coldest days of the yearespecially in the South and on the larger islands. However, not throughout Italy and not limited to just these three days.
