A method practiced in southern Germany to predict the weather for the following year goes like this: At Silvester evening twelve big, sphere- like pieces of onion are taken and put on a wooden board in a row. They represent the months from January to December. Then a grain of salt is put into every piece of onion, and the whole thing is left overnight in a room without heating, but without frost. The amount of liquid in every onion piece tells how much rain/snow there will be in the respective month.