These old Italian tales have the primary function to explain the changing of weather during midwinter and the coming of spring.
Other tales explain the different dark colors of the male and female blackbird through the story of a female blackbird that hid in a chimney to protect herself and her children from the coldest days of winter. The bird, that according to the legend was originally white, became black because of the ashes.
In other version of the story the blackbird had an argument with the January God, who used to bring rain, snow, and cold weather on earth. The bird to save herself from the cold weather decided to hide in her nest until the end of the month. But the God to punish her made those last days the coldest, so when the bird finally came out her plumage had darkened because of the storm.
This version of the story is also connected with the “Days of the Old Lady” in which an old woman, happy for the coming of spring mocked the Winter God who decided to bring back the cold weather to punish the woman.
In Italy we don’t celebrate these days, but we certainly do believe that the Days of the Blackbird are the coldest of the year.