Saints and their influence on weather. Summer holiday patterns. Harvest time. Oh, and accordions!

 For the first time in several weeks yesterday we didn’t go out for a walk. And for the first time in as many weeks I didn’t hit my Fitbit target of 10,000 steps a day. It was the rain that did it! And boy, did it rain! We’ve not had such heavy in a good while. Ironically, as the rain battered down on us, I listened to a news report on the radio about drought conditions in various parts of the country and the problems farmers are having as a result.

And yesterday was St Swithin’s (or Swithun’s) Day. The weather on July 15th (July 2nd in Wales, I am given to understand) is supposed to dictate the weather for the next 40 days. The rhyme goes:

And yesterday was St Swithin’s (or Swithun’s) Day. The weather on July 15th (July 2nd in Wales, I am given to understand) is supposed to dictate the weather for the next 40 days. The rhyme 

St Swithun’s Day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain

St Swithun’s day if thou be fair

For forty days ‘twill rain nae more

But in Buckinghamshire they have a much more prosaic version:

If on St Swithun’s day it really pours

You’re better off to stay indoors

Swithin/Swithun was the bishop of Winchester and later patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. Since when do cathedrals have patron saints? I thought countries had patron saints, not cathedrals. It was all a long time ago though, as he died in 863.  Looking up stuff about old Swithin/Swithun, I’ve just read this: if it rains on Saint Swithun's bridge (Winchester) on his feast day (15 July) it will continue for forty days. So maybe we’ll get away with it having rained yesterday because it rained here rather than on his special bridge. Unless, of course, it did rain on his bridge as well.

To become a saint, as I understand it, you need to perform miracles. Well, Swithin/Swithun's best-known miracle was his restoration on a bridge of a basket of eggs that workmen had maliciously broken.

Various other saints in different countries are also said to have an influence on the weather, all of them on dates in June and July. My favourite from the name point of view is Russia’s Sampson the Hospitable, whose day is June 27th. 

I suppose everyone everywhere wants to have decent weather for bringing in harvests. (More about that later.)

As well as legends and stories, it seems there is a scientific basis to the weather pattern behind the legend of St Swithun's day. Around the middle of July, the jet stream settles into a pattern which, in the majority of years, holds reasonably steady until the end of August. When the jet stream lies north of the British Isles the then continental high pressure is able to move in; when it lies across or south of the British Isles, Arctic air and Atlantic weather systems predominate.

There you go. And here’s another silly statistic: The most false that the prediction has been, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was in 1924 when 13.5 hours of sunshine in London were followed by 30 of the next 40 days being wet, and in 1913 when a 15-hour rainstorm was followed by 30 dry days out of 40.

I recently made some comment about Parliament going into recess for the summer, assuming that that break began back at a time when MPs were rich guys with estates to manage and harvesting to oversee. I also seem to remember reading at some time in the past that our school year was originally established in its current form so that children could help with the harvest of various crops. Today I read that in Germany they have been having some arguments over the dates of summer holidays.

Since 1964 the various states of Germany agreed a system of “sharing out” the summer holidays: some of them breaking up for summer in early June and returning to school in August. The aim was to reduce holiday congestion on roads, railways and airports. It also extends the domestic holiday and tourism season. Its renegotiated every five years. How very forward-thinking and organised fhey were back in 1964!

But Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have not joined in the system, indeed have refused to do so.  They have a fixed holiday period every year, typically from around the end of July or beginning of August until mid-September. It is the last possible and most favoured holiday slot. They want to keep these time slots on the grounds that “their children are required to help bring in the harvest”. 

Really? This is the 21st century.

Here’s a thing: “Germany has about 255,000 farms of 5 hectares (12.3 acres) or more, the highest number being in Bavaria, followed by Baden-Württemberg. Children do still work on farms, but due to child protection laws, increased automation and a reduction in farming, the numbers who do so are thought to be small. Children are allowed to work on their family’s farm, but only for up to three hours a day and between the hours of 8am and 6pm.”

Hmm! It sounds as though they just like that time slot! Bavaria’s state leader, Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union, said: “We have our holiday rhythm, which is, so to speak, an integral part of Bavarians’ DNA.”

So it goes! 

Here’s a quotation that made me smile, having spent quite a lot of summer holidays in places where accordion players come and “serenade” you as you sit outside cafes and restaurants: 

“A gentleman is someone who can play 

the accordion, but doesn't.” 

― Tom Waits

Quite so!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!