Meteorological Spring starts today. It consists of the months of March, April, and May. Now you have heard….
If March comes in like a lion it goes out like a lamb and if March comes in like a lamb, it goes out like a lion.
But have you heard the others…
A dry March and a wet May
Fill barns and bays with corn and hay.
A peck of March dust and a shower in May
Makes the corn green and the fields gay.
March brings breezes loud and shrill,
To stir the dancing daffodil.
A March sun sticks
Like a lock of wool.
So many misties in March,
So many frosties in May
When March blows its horn,
your barn will be filled with hay and corn.
Supposedly when people lived in the same area for generations they were able to “predict” the weather for that area. They had observed their land and the insects, animals, birds and people and what changes the weather had on them. The older generation passed this knowledge to the younger one with sayings like above.
But now that people move around what was true for one area is not true for another so is considered folk or weather lore. I can understand what works for our area would not work for my sister in Puerto Rico. But I can not understand dismissing all folklore.
Our local weatherman knocks it all, calls it mumbo gumbo. He is very into his technical machines and gadgets but when it comes down to it the weatherman is doing the same thing our ancestors did. He looks at the records of what happen when the wind came from this direction and the temps were this and makes a prediction. He has machines and he is no more accurate than most of the “folklore”.
The one thing I like about folk/weather lore is the continuity it represents…the same family, same land year after year. I am not big on change. So seeing as how my ancestors have lived in this area since the 1850’s, I feel I am knowledgeable enough to make a prediction of my own. I predict in March the weather will do what it wants and we will deal with it and that in the end it turns into April! And I predict that until I can get into the greenhouse I will do fiberarts.
2 comments:
Hi,
I found your blog via Riverrim/Cyndy (I also live in this area of PA). I ALWAYS live by "Red in the morning sailors take warning and red and night sailors delight." I have learned from my days in college for engineering that there is actually some scientific fact behind it. Although I don't remember the details, it had to do with atmospheric pressure and how it pushes down on the air particals and when the light shines through the compressed air particals you see those lovely sunrises and sunsets. And with changing atmospheric pressure you get changing weather. Blah, blah, blah!
oops - supposed to say "red AT night" not "red and night"!
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