Las cabañuelas (also cavanuelas or cabanuelas) were a method of

forecasting Forecasting is the process of making predictions based on past and present data. Later these can be compared with what actually happens. For example, a company might Estimation, estimate their revenue in the next year, then compare it against the ...

the

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...

practiced throughout the

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

. It is a traditional form of weather prediction dating back many centuries in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, though strongly influenced by Native American practises.

Description

Las cabañuelas is practiced throughout Mexico,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, including the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, and even in parts of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

that were previously territories of Spain. In Spain, the self-procaliamed expert cabañuelistas are organized at the Asociación Cultural Española de cabañuelas y Astrometeorología (ACECA). Every year, they report the weather for the coming twelve months. The cabañuelistas in Spain claim that cabañuelas is "an empirical science" and that its origin is thousands of years old, when the "only reference of the time was the Moon", even the times that

Egyptians Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...

used to measure the levels of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

waters, the Sirius star, and that the old base of cabanuelas was measured beginning August 1.

Methodology

In Northern New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, the cabañuelas were practiced as follows: *The 31 days of January were carefully observed in order to predict the weather for the rest of the year. *The first through twelfth days of January represented their corresponding months on the

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

. The thirteenth through twenty-fourth days of January represented the months in reverse, with the thirteenth corresponding to December, the fourteenth corresponding to November, and the twenty-fourth corresponding to January again. *From the twenty-fifth through thirtieth, the days were divided into two parts, with the morning of the twenty-fifth corresponding to January, and the afternoon of that same day corresponding to February, and so on. *On the last day of January, the twenty-four hours corresponded each to a month in the same way that the first twenty-four days of the month did. This 31st day of January is regarded with the utmost reverence, with much superstition and importance vested in it. *The average of the findings would be taken by methodical record-keepers such that, for example, if it rained or snowed on the 7th, 18th, or the 31st at 7:00 a.m. and/or at 6:00 p.m., the cabañuela would show that July would be a wet month. In the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, cabañuelas mixed with indigenous practises, particularly

Incan The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...

ones. Sacrifices to deities like

Pachamama Pachamama is a goddess revered by the Indigenous peoples of the Andes. In Inca mythology she is an " Earth Mother" type goddess, Dransart, Penny. (1992) "Pachamama: The Inka Earth Mother of the Long Sweeping Garment." ''Dress and Gender: Makin ...

help influence the weather.Jorge Legoas P, Performing Symmetry in Andean Weather Forecasting: The Practice of Cabañuelas, Beyond Divination and Suffering, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 90, Issue 4, December 2022, Pages 987–1009, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfad030 Published: 29 June 2023

References

Alcón, Manuel B. (2005), ''Lo De Mora'', Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing.

Description

Methodology

References

See also