Catamisi and Catamisicchj
   by Teresa Giamba and Gustavo Cannizzaro

 

  Christmas returns with its traditions which evoke characteristic moments of a life belonging to the   past and ever present in our hearts.

  The sound of lullabies returns, the Nativity scenes, the perfume of the pitte di Sam Martino and the   smell of frying of the typical zippule and alici. To all these are added some new elements, the   emotion of a gift waiting under the tree, the golden slices of panettone with a flute of champagne.   Despite all this there are some holes in the revival of Christmas traditions: the Catamisi and the   Catamisicchj which has been forgotten by the farming community for over a couple of decades.

 This used to be a very live and heartfelt tradition in the farming world; from it the wise farmer learnt   the annual auspices. No contract was carried out, no plantation was planned without consulting the   Catamisi. This explains the huge importance that this kind of horoscope had for our community.

  The word Catamisi is the union of two words “cata”, one of whose Greek meanings was the adverbial   “up” and “down”. While “misi” is a clear reference to the “month”. Therefor the whole word means “the   month below and above Christmas”. On closer observation we find that it refers precisely to the   twelve days before and after Christmas.

  The catamisi, the twelve days before Christmas, began on the 13^th December and each day   corresponded to and should have reflected the atmospheric conditions of the first fifteen days of each   month of the coming year, starting from January. The Catamisicchj began on the 25^th December and   ended on the 5^th January; it supposedly reflected the atmospheric conditions of the second half of   each month of the coming year, only this time they went backwards from December to January.

On the night of the 5th January, known as the “Battesimo   dei tempi” (the Baptism of the times), each farmer held a   wake. At precisely Midnight each would go outside and   during the first five minutes, they would closely watch the   sky noting the direction in which the clouds moved thus,   the winds. From this each managed to foresee the   weather for the coming year.

  Great and copious crops were expected if the clouds followed the Levante wind (wind from the East).   There was also a saying testifying as much: “Levanti linchi i vacanti”. A bad year was to be expected   if the clouds followed the Libeccio wind (wind from the South-West). In this case the saying went:   “Lapici mai benefici”. It was not possible to make any forecast if the clouds followed the Ponente   wind (wind from the West). The saying for this case went: “Ponenti non faci nenti”.

Such customs were numerous and characterised the   farming life of many years ago because survival   depended closely upon the crops who in turn depended   on the atmospheric conditions. Because of this there   was a need to foresee the weather conditions of the   coming year not only for practical reasons but also on a   symbolic level, with its rules which, although not   guaranteeing any outcome, certainly offered a small   margin of tranquillity to the farming world so exposed to   any kind of adversity.

  It was a simple philosophy, typical of a simple society, but homogenous. This homogeneity used to   be reflected in an unmediated ideological apparatus which regulated and ordered the lifestyle of the   farming community.