New Year’s weather has an interesting folklore

Includes onions, a compass, and salt among other things

ORLANDO, Fla. – On New Year’s Eve many people have traditions or superstitions from running down the street with empty luggage to eating 12 grapes or black-eyed peas.

Grapes? Greens? What are your New Year’s Eve traditions?

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Weather has it’s own folklore and superstitions for the new year. Some require 12 onions, a compass, and some salt, while others require reciting a poem and then casting a New Year’s wish into the wind. As intriguing as these sound, the first 12 days of January was perhaps the longest so we decided to take a closer look. Not to worry, we’ll explain the onions later.

Calendar (Pixabay)

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the first 12 days of January foretell the weather for each month of the upcoming year. So good or bad, the weather on each day is supposed to represent how each month will feel. The first day of the year is January, the second day represents February, and the pattern goes on from there until the 12 days are done.

If this folklore is true, that means we are in for a warm January.

The first four days of 2023 have all been in the low 80s which is above the average of 71 for this time of year in Orlando. (wkmg)

On Jan. 1, it was a little breezy and dry with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s – that’s above average. In fact, the first four days were above average in warmth even as storms rolled in late in the day Wednesday. Will it be above average through the first quarter of the year? Time will tell.

Back to the onions. There’s actually two versions of this particular piece of folklore.

Onions (Pixlr)

The first version requires 12 onions, a compass, a spoon, salt, and some water. Cut the tops off of each onion between 11 p.m. and midnight on New Year’s Eve. Then, with spoon dig out a depression in the center of each onion. Grab the compass and line the twelve onions east to west. January will be the first onion on the east side and the last onion on the west represents December.

Measure out some salt – it doesn’t say how much – and place it in the depression of the onion. Make sure to put the same amount of salt in each onion. Don’t look at the onions until the next morning. The salt in each onion will dissolve to a certain extent based on the amount of water it holds. The more water the onion has represents how wet the month the onion represents will be.

Here’s the kicker – after observations have been made, the directions say to add other root veggies and lightly rub them in olive oil and spices and you’ve got a side dish for dinner that night. Unless there’s a lot of people coming to dinner, count on leftovers. Who doesn’t love folklore with a dual purpose?

The other onion lore only requires one onion, but has a similar purpose forecasting moisture. This German tradition says to make sure the onion is from a local source since this will represent the rain for the area the observations are made in. For this method, the onion is cut in half. Then each layer on the left half represents January to June starting from the outside layer and then going in.

The right half is July through December. Peel away each layer and place in a cup with a teaspoon of salt between 11 p.m. and midnight on New Year’s Eve. Place each cup – direction apparently doesn’t matter here, but make sure to note which month is which – on a windowsill overnight. The next morning there will be moisture in the cup that will represent how much moisture will be in the atmosphere for each corresponding month. No dinner idea here.


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About the Author:

Emmy Award Winning Meteorologist Samara Cokinos joined the News 6 team in September 2017. In her free time, she loves running and being outside.

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