Dormouse day
The Seven Sleepers is the liturgical memorial of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus on 27 June. The importance of the dormouse day as a lottery day shifted to the first week of July due to the Gregorian calendar reform .
Legend of the memorial day
The Dormouse Day owes its name to an old legend. According to this, seven young Christians had sought refuge in a mountain cave near Ephesus during the time of the persecution of Christians under Emperor Decius (249-251) . They were discovered and walled in alive. According to legend, they did not die, but slept for 195 years. They were discovered by chance on June 27, 446, woke up, testified to the belief in the resurrection of the dead and died a little later.
The legend was first documented in writing in the 6th century; Gregor von Tours translated it into Latin for the first time. There are several Syrian and Greek variants. Also of Islam ( Koran , Sura 18, " Al-Kahf " - The cave ') tells a version of this story. There is no connection with the rodent dormouse .
Meteorological singularity of the pawn rule
The period around and especially after the dormouse day is considered to be a meteorological singularity that determines the weather; the farmer's rule is available in a multitude of variants.
Statistical analyzes showed that although it does not apply to the dormouse day according to the current calendar, it does apply to the first week of July in southern Germany in 60-70% of the cases, which is related to the general weather situation , which is dependent on the jet stream , and which usually occurs from late June to early July for some Time stabilized. In the period between 1991 and 2020, the probability has increased to up to 73%. Since this peasant rule was created before the Gregorian calendar reform of 1582 , today's dormouse day is actually on or shortly before July 7th. For the period from July 5th to 10th, the meteorologist Franz Baur has proven a statistical accumulation.
If the jet stream is in the north, low pressure areas are mostly diverted towards Northern Europe and high pressure areas dominate the weather in southern Central Europe; if it is further south, lows can sweep across Central Europe. However, the rule does not apply to northern Germany with its more maritime climate.
Specifically, if an extensive high pressure zone is established over Scandinavia - which may form a stable alliance with the Azores high with a high pressure bridge over England - constant, dry and very warm to hot weather can often be expected in Central Europe. Conversely, a cyclonic westerly situation in Germany and large parts of Central Europe can lead to very changeable and unstable weather in the following weeks. There is an average high air pressure gradient between the surface pressure structures Iceland low and Azores high , which leads to a long-lasting supply of moist and cool air masses from the Atlantic to Central Europe. If the cool northern sea air prevails in northern Germany and significantly warmer air masses have an impact in the south, this also leads to very changeable weather effects. There is then a potential for severe weather, especially in the transition area between cool and warm sea air .
Pawn rule
Many of the June rules as well as the rules for the following month can be applied in a similar way, such as for St. John's Day (June 24th). In some regions there are similar rules for other Lost Days , for example for Medardus (June 8, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary), Gervasius and Protasius (June 19), the Visitation of Mary (July 2) or the Day of Seven Brothers (July 10) .
In detail, the following variants are known for the dormouse day:
- How the weather will behave on the dormouse is ordered for seven weeks.
- When it rains on the dormouse, we are blessed with rain for seven weeks.
- The weather on dormouse day may stay seven weeks.
- How's the weather on Dormouse Day, so July may be.
- When the dormice boil rain, it rains for a whole seven weeks.
- If the dormouse is wet, it rains incessantly.
- It rains on the Seven Sleepers Day, the rain does not want to give way for seven weeks.
- If the seven sleepers get wet, it will rain barrel after barrel for a long time.
- The dormouse rain brings no blessing to the country.
- Dormouse rain - seven weeks of rain.
- When the sun shines on the dormouse, there are seven weeks of bliss.
Web links
- About the dormouse day in the calendar sheet of June 27, 2006 ( Bavaria 2 ) - as a printable manuscript ( memento of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ We clarify: What is true of the myth of the dormouse? Retrieved June 24, 2021 .
- ↑ Horst Malberg: Peasant rules. From a meteorological point of view. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York 2003, p. 98, ISBN 3-540-00673-7 .
- ↑ Dormouse. In: Lexicon of the German Weather Service . Retrieved June 27, 2016 .
- ↑ Weather cases / singularities: dormouse. In: unwetterzentrale.de. Retrieved June 27, 2016 .