Posted
on October 16, 2015
People
who are farmers live more by the sun, even, than the rest of us do –
and this was especially true back in the past, when we had fewer ways
to get around nature's limitations!
Farmers
had to worry about sunlight for their crops and weather affecting
both crops and livestock. They often started work at daybreak and
ended at sundown. They tried to capitalize on sunny summers and rainy
seasons. They were careful to harvest crops before they froze.
Today,
St. Gallus Day, was all about agricultural traditions...and weather
prediction.
- Rain on St. Gallus Day was thought to be a sign of good luck - BUT, if there was a lot of rain on St. Gallus Day, it was thought to be a sign that rains would continue until Christmas. If there was no rain, it was thought to be a sign that the next summer would be dry.
- Farmers hastened to store all the fruit that would be used as seed for next year in the cellar, AND to store all eating apples in the cellar, by this date.
- After St. Gallus Day, farmers started butchering and smoking their hams and started keeping their cows warm and safe in barns.
St.
Gallus (also known as St. Gall) was born in Ireland but lived much of
his long life in Switzerland. However, according to what I read, he
enjoyed a lot of popularity in Germany as well as Switzerland. (For
example, a week-long festival used be held in his name in Germany.)
The
most popular legend about St. Gallus is that, when the saint was
traveling through the woods, he had built a campfire and was sitting near it, warming
his hands. Suddenly, a bear came into the clearing and started to
charge Gallus. He held up his hands and commanded the bear to stop – and the bear stopped running toward him
and then slunk back into the forest.The legend goes on to say that the bear gathered some more firewood and then came back to the campfire to help stoke the fire and to share in its heat. From then on, people say that St. Gallus was accompanied by that bear.
Did
you know...?
- Switzerland's 2-letter country code is CH...which is surely a bit unexpected! I mean, the United States' code is US, Thailand's is TH, Swaziland's is SZ...so why is Switzerland's CH?
The
official name of Switzerland is Confoederatio Helvetica (which
is Latin for Swiss Confederation). So...CH makes sense.
For some uses, countries also have 3-letter country codes. The United States' code is
(you guessed it) USA, and Switzerland's is CHE (obviously for
Confoederatio HElvetica).
Sometimes
Switzerland is abbreviated SUI...Like on a tennis match, when you are
watching Swiss tennis great Roger Federer annihilating his opponent,
you will often see Federer (SUI). This abbreviation comes from the
French word for Switzerland, which is la Suisse.
- Even though Switzerland is between West Virginia and Maryland in size, the nation has FOUR official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh.
- CERN, the world's largest particle physics lab, is located on the border between Switzerland and France, near Geneva, Switzerland. This research organization, made up of 21 European countries plus Israel, is doing incredibly exciting work that will probably speak to the beginnings and endings of the universe and other big questions!
CERN stands for "Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire."
I
was interested to discover that there is an Arts@CERN program, with
artists winning residencies so that they can soak up some of the
energy and interesting notions at CERN and then weave them into their
dance, music, or visual arts!
Check
out the videos at the Arts@CERN website.
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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