Blackbird singing in the dead of night...

{via}

Here where I live they have a legend about the "giorni della merla" {The days of the blackbird}, which are the last 3 days of January, the 29th, 30th, and 31st. 

It's actually a really cute legend.

Once upon a time {all good legends start this way, right?}, the first blackbird alive was all white (it probably wasn't called a blackbird back then, but that's neither here nor there). One day it got really cold and freezing...

{via}

so, the blackbird had to look for someplace to hide in order to shield itself from the cold. The only place it could find to hide was inside a chimney stack

{via}

So, our little {white} blackbird hid out inside the chimney stack for the next 3 days {the coldest days of the year}, and when it started getting warmer he emerged, but due to the soot and ash in the chimney he was no longer white, but black, and it remained that way forever....

{cannot for the life of me remember where I found this one...sorry!}

 ...and that my friends is why blackbirds are black!