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The three days of the blackbird

Text

A long time ago, the month of January had only twenty eight days.
Mr January was a lonely ill-tempered fellow.
He didn’t like the birds’ chirping and amused himself by playing nasty tricks on them.
Whenever the whitebird, whom he didn’t like at all, went out and looked for food, Mr January, to annoy her,
caused a snow storm.
One day the whitebird decided to talk to him:
- My January, since you are so annoying, couldn’t you be shorter and have
fewer days?
- That’s out of question, I’ve been given twenty-eight days and I’m not going to
change them.
And he unleashed the freezing northern winds.
The following year the whitebird hoarded food and stayed in her cosy nest for all the twenty-eight days of January.
At the end of the month the bird left her nest and started jeering Mr January.
- Tralala, tralala, I tricked you, that’ll teach you!
And she flew away to look for more food.
January then got mad and wanted to take revenge.
He decided to steal three days from his brother, Mr February, who was too busy dressing up for Carnival
to notice.
During the three following days January caused a terrible snow storm. The trees collapsed under the weight of the snow and the animals looked forn makeshift shelters to protect themselves from the cold.

The whitebird, not to die of cold, took refuge in a chimney to find some warmth.

After three days the storm died out and the whitebird came out of the chimney... completely blackened by soot.
Since then, January has thirty-one days, February only twenty-eight and the blackbirds have now
got black feathers.

References

Élèves ayant participé au projet
École de l’enfance de Gressan Chevrot
Section A
Martina BENVENUTO
Simone CREA
Christian LOMBARDI
Giada LUNARDI
Elisa LORENZINI
Samuele LIUT
Valentina MAGRO
Arianna MONTI
Noemi PONZETTI
Nizar SUIT
Section B
Yasmine AFASSAY
Bilal ARIF
Estelle BÉDÉ
Noah BRUNELLO
Chérie CURTAZ
Emma VIÉRIN
Institutrices Mmes Nathalie D. CHRISTILLIN, Angela LUNA
Chef d’établissement Mme Daniela SARTEUR
Version en catalan de Mme Rita PEIX
Projet EFTLV Comenius Regio
Des contes dans nos langues : du bilinguisme au plurilinguisme
Porteurs et partenaires du projet
Région autonome de la Vallée d’Aoste
Assessorat de l’éducation et de la culture
• Centre d’études francoprovençales René Willien
• Walser Kulturzentrum
• Alliance française de la Vallée d’Aoste
• CIEBP (Centre d’information sur l’éducation bilingue et plurilingue)
• Institution Scolaire Communauté de Montagne Mont-Emilius 1 de Nus
• Institution Scolaire Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne de Saint-Pierre
• Institution Scolaire Communauté de Montagne Grand-Combin de Gignod
• Institution Scolaire Walser Mont-Rose B de Pont Saint-Martin
• Institution Scolaire Communauté de Montagne Valdigne Mont-Blanc de Morgex
• Institution Scolaire Saint-François d’Aoste
• Institution Scolaire Communauté de Montagne Mont-Emilius 3 de Charvensod
• Institution Scolaire Luigi Barone de Verrès Commune du Vigan
• Ligue de l'enseignement (Gard)
• Médiathèque – Communauté des communes du Pays Viganais – Le Vigan 30
• École JP Florian – St Privat des Vieux 30• École maternelle J Carrière – Le Vigan 30
• École élémentaire J Carrière – Le Vigan 30
• École élémentaire Berthelot – Carcassonne 11
• École maternelle Berthelot – Carcassonne 11
• Groupe scolaire Jean Bonijol Mende 48
• École maternelle Michel Maurette – Thuir 66
• DSDEN de l'Aude
• DSDEN du Gard
• DSDEN de la Lozère
• IUFM de Montpellier – 34 – site de Perpignan
Comité scientifique
Mesdames Rita Decime, Christiane Dunoyer, Claire Torreilles, Gabriella Vernetto, Elisabeth
Zurbriggen
Messieurs Jean Duverger, Gérard Roques