Dog days
The phrase Dog Days or "the dog days of summer", refers to the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the northern hemisphere they usually fall between early July and early September whilst in the Southern hemisphere February to March. The actual dates vary greatly from region to region, depending on latitude and climate. Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress.
The name
The term "Dog Days" was used by the Greeks (see, e.g., Aristotle's Physics, 199a2), as well as the ancient Romans (who called these days caniculares dies (days of the dogs)) after Sirius (the "Dog Star"), the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun.
Popularly believed to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies" - Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813. [citation needed] [page needed]
The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true owing to precession of the equinoxes. The ancients sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.
The term dog day means terrible
The dates
The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional timing of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the ancient helical (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius.
According to The Book of Common Prayer (1552), the "Dog Daies" begin on July 6 and end on August 17.
Other locations
By contrast, "Dog Days" as defined herein do not occur at all in the southern hemisphere, for there even when the star is least favorably placed for viewing (around July 1), it still will be briefly visible from the southern hemisphere both in the east before dawn and again in the west after dusk. Throughout most of Antarctica Sirius is circumpolar; that is to say, constantly above the horizon.
In the northern hemisphere, the further north one goes, the longer Sirius remains invisible each year, and beyond a latitude of approximately 74°N (to the north of any part of mainland Europe or North America) the star never appears above the horizon at all.
The period from July 23 to August 23 is called "Rötmånad" in Sweden and "Mätäkuu" in Finland, both literally meaning "rotting-month", due to the risk of foodstuff spoiling due to the high temperature.
Other references
For the ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the season of the Nile's flooding, so they used the star as a "watchdog" for that event. Since its rising also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all time: "Dog Days bright and clear / indicate a happy year. / But when accompanied by rain, / for better times our hopes are vain."[citation needed]
The phrase is mentioned in the short story "The Bar Sinister" by Richard Harding Davis. The main character, who is a street dog, explains "but when the hot days come, I think they might remember that those are the dog days, and leave a little water outside in a trough, like they do for the horses."
In recent years, the phrase "Dog Days" or "Dog Days of Summer" have also found new meanings. The term has frequently been used in reference to the American stock market(s). Typically, summer is a very slow time for the stock market, and additionally, poorly performing stocks with little future potential are frequently known as "dogs." [citation needed]
A casual survey will usually find that many people believe the phrase is in reference to the conspicuous laziness of domesticated dogs (who are in danger of overheating with too much exercise) during the hottest days of the summer. When speaking of "Dog Days" there seems to be a connotation of lying or "dogging" around, or being "dog tired" on these hot and humid days. Although these meanings have nothing to do with the original source of the phrase, they may have been attached to the phrase in recent years due to common usage or misunderstanding of the origin of the phrase.
The feast day of Saint Roch, the patron saint of dogs, is August 16.
Icelanders refer to the Danish adventurer Jørgen Jürgensen as Jörundur hundadagakonungur ("Jørgen the dog-days King" in Icelandic) since he proclaimed himself lord protector for some months of 1809.
See also
- Dog Day Afternoon, a 1975 film
- Dog Day (band)
- Dog Days, a 1975 album and song by the Atlanta Rhythm Section
- The Dog day cicadas (Tibicen)
- Dog Day Sunrise, a song by the band Head of David.
- Dog Days (Lockie Leonard Episode)
- Dog Days of Summer, a 2008 film directed by Mark Freiburger
- Star lore