No. 365 - St. Swithin's Day

Wow! The last post! I had not anticipated how hard it would be to learn and post something new for 365 consecutive days. In all, it was really fun. I particularly loved when my kids would ask me what I learned during the day, when they had special requests for me to learn something they were interested in, and especially when they taught me something new. I would also like to thank some special friends and family (you know who you are) who taught me cool stuff throughout the year.

And so, without further ado, the last thing I learned in 2010 came from a novel aptly titled One Day, as in one day at a time, which is the attitude I had to take in order to complete this blog (and personal goal).

I recently began reading One Day by David Nicholls, a British author. The story starts with a young couple on their last day as undergraduates on July 15, 1988, and then revisits the couple on that same day for the next two decades, to show us what has become of their lives and their relationship.

I learned that July 15 is St. Swithin's Day, which is sort of like a British Groundhog Day, a day on which people watch the weather because tradition says that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin's Day, it will continue so for the next forty days.

There is even a well-known weather rhyme throughout the British Isles:

St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.

(For us non-Britons "dost" means "does" and "nae mair" means "no more.")

The legend originally only concerned rain, but later related to 40 days of similar weather. There is very little truth behind these sayings, and since 1861 there has neither been 40 dry nor 40 wet days following a dry or wet St. Swithin's Day. In fact, on average, about 20 days with some rain and 20 rain free days can be expected between July 15th and August 24th.