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.