May 15 is the feast day of Saint Sophia of Rome. On this date, Saint Sophia was regularly invoked against frosts that occurred late in the year; thus she was called
kalte Sophie 'cold Sophia' in Germany by those who requested her aid in planting arable crops. Considered to be one of the "Ice Saints". Sophia is also an "ice saint" in Slovenia and Central Europe, where St. Sophia's day ("Cold Sophie") is considered the last day of cold weather. There, Sophia is associated with rain and is nicknamed
poscana Zofka 'pissing Sophie' or
mokra Zofija 'wet Sophia' in folk tradition. In Czech, the Sophia is known as "Žofie, ledová žena" (Sophia, the ice-woman).
Many of the old weather rules are now forgotten. Nowadays, we rely on the weather forecasts of radio and television. According to lore...
I'm so sorry to do this to you, but this post has been moved to my new website,
The Pagan Calendar, hosted at
shirleytwofeathers.com, and can be found in its entirety here:
Cold Sophie
No comments:
Post a Comment