Applicant:
Palaiometocho Community Council
Date of inscription:
2022
Brief description:
Menallaya or Meromenia is the traditional practice of weather forecasting. The word itself refers etymologically to the changes in the weather, as well as to specific days on which meteorological observations are made concerning the whole year. The empirical knowledge handed down from generation to generation involves the observation of weather phenomena for 12 days — each of which represents the weather of the following months. In this way, the connoisseurs of the monthly changes (not only of the previous decades but also of modern times) have a weather forecasting “tool” in their hands. Today, the carriers and continuators of the Menallaya are mostly amateur meteorologists who inherited the empirical knowledge of the previous generations. Essentially, this weather forecasting technique is passed down from generation to generation through the empirical path and the cultivation of love for nature.