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How to Consult an Onion Oracle


From the Midwest to a tiny town in Italy, the tradition of weather-predicting onions lives on.

On a cold New Year’s Eve in 1967 in Ashley, North Dakota, newlyweds Donna and Delbert Eszlinger sliced excitedly into a large, round yellow onion. Toni Pecoraro/ Wikimedia Commons/ Public Domain In Urbania, they do the ritual on the night of January 24, the eve of what’s known in the Catholic calendar as the Conversion of St. Paul, when the man named Saul was struck to the ground by a divine light and decided to become a Christian. Illustrations: Anne Meadows for Atlas Obscura Step 2: Cut the onion in half lengthwise and carefully separate the six outermost layers so that you have 12 sections total.

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