SEASONS. WEATHER.
If the grass grow in Janiveer,
It grows the worse for it all the year.
"When gnats dance in January the husbandman becomes a beggar" (Dutch).[783] An exception to these rules is recorded by Ray, who says that "in the year 1667 the winter was so mild that the pastures were very green in January; yet was there scarcely ever known a more plentiful crop of hay than the summer following."
February fill dike, be it black or be it white.
All the months in the year curse a fair Februeer.
The hind had as lief see his wife on the bier
As that Candlemas day should be pleasant and clear.
Candlemas day is the 2nd of February, when the Romish Church celebrates the purification of the Virgin Mary. On that day, also, the church candles are blessed for the whole year, and they are carried in procession in the hands of the faithful. Then the use of tapers at vespers and litanies, which prevails throughout the winter, ceases until the ensuing Allhallowmas: hence the proverb,—
On Candlemas day
Throw candle and candlestick away.
Browne, in his "Vulgar Errors," says there is a general tradition in most parts of Europe that inferreth the coldness of the succeeding winter from the shining of the sun on Candlemas day, according to the proverbial distich:—
Si sol splendescat Marin purificante,
Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante.
"If Candlemas day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another flight;
If on Candlemas day there be shower and rain,
Winter is gone and will not come again."
Another version of this proverb current in the north of England is,—
"If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
The half of winter's to come and mair;
If Candlemas day be wet and foul [pronounce fool],
The half of winter's gone to Yule."
March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.
March comes in with adder heads and goes out with peacock tails.—Scotch.
A peck of March dust is worth a king's ransom.
A dry March never begs its bread.
A peck of March dust and a shower in May
Make the corn green and the fields gay.
March winds and April showers
Bring forth May flowers.
Make clothes white and maids dun.
So many mists in March you see,
So many frosts in May will be.
March grass never did good.
"When gnats dance in March it brings death to sheep" (Dutch).[784]
When April blows his horn it's good both for hay and corn.
"That is," says Ray, "when it thunders in April, for thunder is usually accompanied with rain."
A cold April the barn will fill.
April and May are the keys of the year.
A May flood never did good.
This applies to England. In Spain and Italy they say, "Water in May is bread for all the year."[785]
To wed in May is to wed poverty.
There were fewer marriages in Scotland in May, 1857, than in any other month of the year: it is an "unlucky month." The proverb is recorded by Washington Irving.
A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay,
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon,
But a swarm in July is not worth a fly.
A shower in July, when the corn begins to fill,
Is worth a plough of oxen and all belongs theretill.
A dry summer never made a dear peck.
Drought never bred dearth in England.
The same thing, and no more, is meant by the following enigmatical rhyme:—
"When the sand doth feed the clay,
England woe and well-a-day;
But when the clay doth feed the sand,
Then is it well with old England."
The first of these two contingencies occurs after a wet summer—the second after a dry one; and, as there is more clay than sand in England, there is a better harvest in the second case than in the first.
Dry August and warm doth harvest no harm.
They think differently on this point in the south of Europe. "A wet August never brings dearth" (Italian).[786] "When it rains in August it rains honey and wine" (Spanish).[787]
September blow soft till the fruit's in the loft.
November take flail, let ships no more sail.
A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard.
It is a popular notion that a mild winter is less healthy than a frosty one; but the Registrar-General's returns prove that it is quite the contrary. The mortality of the winter months is always in proportion to the intensity of the cold. The proverb, therefore, must be given up as a fallacy. There is some truth in this of the Germans, "A green Christmas, a white Easter." The probability is that a very mild winter will be followed by an inclement spring.
A snow year, a rich year.
Under water, dearth; under snow, bread.
Winter's thunder and summer's flood
Never boded an Englishman good.