Another skyward staring day. It’s Seven Brothers’ Day, nothing to do with Howard Keel or The Rape of the Sabine Women, and everything to do with Estonia. And rain. We don’t seem to celebrate Seven Brothers’ Day here, even though today’s weather prediction arising from said day is quoted in one of my British ritual year books:
If it rains on 10th July, it will rain for seven weeks.
Seven weeks, seven brothers. It was a curse you see, from the brothers in return for being torched for three days for refusing to convert. However, in Estonia, there’s more to this long range forecast. According to the Estonian Open Air Museum, the curse continues:
But if there is so much sunlight as a man needs to jump upon a horse’s back, there will be much more.
Which feels less like a curse and more like a hedge bet. Which given the weather today can only be a good thing. While I didn’t technically see it rain this morning, there was a certain moistness when I got up, followed by a day of threatening clouds and intermittent glare, topped off with bright blue skies and sparkling setting sunshine. So maybe that’s how the next seven weeks are going to go; crappy to begin with, then a middling meh, and out in a blaze of glory? Although I’m still not entirely sure where the horse fits in to all of this.
Barometer Watch – Green water – nearly at 12 and decidedly frothy. Perhaps the bottle wasn’t as clean as I thought it was. But calamity for the balloon jar, it burst.
Resources
Cooper, Q. and Sullivan, P. (1994) Maypoles, Martyrs & Mayhem: 366 Days of British Myths, Customs & Eccentricities, London, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
