L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano T h e m o n t h o f January is tra- d i t i o n a l l y c o n - sidered the cold- e s t . I n f a c t , i t s last three days are believed to be the chilliest time of the year: in Italy, we call them Giorni della Merla, or "the blackbird days," and there are some little curious legends behind the name, which I am just about to tell you. A small clarification first, because we need to be precise! As those among you who speak Italian probably noticed already, "merla" is a f e m a l e b l a c k b i r d , a s opposed to her male part- ner, the "merlo." The origins of the Giorni della Merla are shrouded in the beauty and colorful cre- ativity of Italian lore. A first version of our famous black- bird's adventures says that, once upon a time, January didn't have thirty-one days, but twenty-eight and liked to pull pranks quite a lot, especially to a female black- bird friend of his. Now, back t h e n , b l a c k b i r d s w e r e n ' t black at all, but as white as snow and, perhaps, January was a tad envious of how pretty his bird friend was. But I am just speculating. Every time the merla left her nest for food, January would unleash a storm on Earth, to make things more difficult for her. One day, tired of her friend's cruel pranks, she went to him and asked to stop it, or at least, to become a shorter month; t o t h a t , J a n u a r y p r o u d l y answered: "No, my dearest! I've been given 28 days and I cannot change that." We'll s e e i n a m i n u t e h o w t h a t wasn't entirely true… The following year, the merla acted smart: aware of her mate's aptitude to bad pranks, she stocked up on food at the beginning of the month and didn't leave the comfortable warmth of her nest for the following four weeks. On the last day of January, she went to him and proudly said: "See? This year, you didn't get me! Cold and ice never touched my white feathers, nor did they chill my beak." T o t h a t , J a n u a r y answered the only way he knew: with another prank. H e w e n t t o h i s b r o t h e r February, that at the time had thirty-one days, asking t o b o r r o w t h r e e o f t h e m . February didn't have any- thing against the idea and so, without the merla know- ing, January, that year, was three days longer. And dur- i n g t h o s e t h r e e d a y s , t h e fun-loving month unleashed one of the worst snowstorms in history, all to make life difficult for his bird friend. The poor merla was caught i n t h e c o l d a n d t h e s n o w while foraging for herself a n d h e r f a m i l y , a n d t h e weather was so incredibly bitter she could not return t o h e r n e s t . L u c k i l y , s h e found shelter in a chimney, where she rested and waited for the storm to end, but where her beautiful white plumage got covered in soot a n d t u r n e d b l a c k . S i n c e then, January has thirty-one days and blackbirds are… black. Another popular legend sets the events of the first Giorni della Merla in Milan, the capital of Lombardia. There, a family of blackbirds – that were white, back then – had a little nest on a nice city center roof. There were a papa blackbird, a mama blackbird, and three small chicks. All of them as white as ice. One year, towards the end of January, the cold and the snow had made it very d i f f i c u l t t o f i n d f o o d . S o papa blackbird decided to fly far, seeking a better place for his family to live, leaving m a m a b l a c k b i r d a n d t h e chicks in their family nest. But the chilly nights were too hard to stand, so the lit- tle family moved to a nearby r o o f , s e t t i n g t h e i r h o m e inside a chimney to enjoy some warmth. When papa blackbird returned, on the first day of February, with food aplenty, he found his family in their new abode: warm, comfortable, and all covered in black soot. Soon, he turned black, too and, since then, all merli are no longer white, but as black as coal. O g n i t a n t o (oh- ñee tahn- t o h ) i s u s e d m o r e t h a n sometimes in Italian! Why do I say "some- times?" Because that's what it means. Indeed ogni tanto s t a n d s f o r t h e E n g l i s h "sometimes," or "every now and then," which in fact may be closer to a literal transla- tion of the original. Ogni tanto is an expres- sion formed by two words: "ogni," which means "every" or "each," and "tanto" which means "much," or "many." O g n i t a n t o w o r k s p r e t t y much like its English coun- terparts, because it always refers to something we don't d o r e g u l a r l y , b u t o n l y o n occasions: vado in palestra ogni tanto ("Sometimes I go to the gym"), or chiamami ogni tanto! ("give me a ring, every now and then"). T h e r e a r e a n u m b e r o f expressions in Italian that have a similar meaning to ogni tanto. For instance, you could also say qualche volta, which means "sometimes" literally, or even the fancier occasionalmente ("occasion- ally"), which sound pretty p o s h t h o u g h , a n d y o u ' r e m o r e l i k e l y t o u s e w h e n writing than when chatting w i t h y o u r f r i e n d s . F o r instance, in an official work a n n o u n c e m e n t , y o u m a y read that occasionalmente le riunioni dello staff si ter- ranno fuori dall'orario di lavoro ("occasionally, team meetings will take place out- s i d e r e g u l a r w o r k i n g hours"), but the use of ogni tanto in the same context is unlikely, even if the meaning is exactly the same. A mat- ter of register, as it often happens! Ogni tanto, mi piace bere una tisana prima di andare a letto I like to drink a cup of herbal tea before bed, every now and then V a d o a l c i n e m a o g n i t a n t o , m a n o n s o n o u n esperto. I go to the cinema some- times, but I'm not an expert. O g n i t a n t o , m i p i a c e preparare la pizza a casa. I l i k e t o m a k e p i z z a a t home every now and then. LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Word of the day: ogni tanto, we love learning new words! Italian curiosities: i Giorni della Merla, the coldest time of the year According to the legend, blackbirds used to be white (Photo: Svetlana Foote/Dreamstime) © Monkey Business Images | Dreamstime.com

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