Today is St. Swithin's Day, a day on which people study the weather because tradition says that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin's Day, it will continue so for the next forty days.There is a weather-rhyme is well known throughout the British Isles since Elizabethan times.'St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t'will rain no more.'
St. Swithin was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester, famous for charitable gifts and building churches. Legend says that as the Bishop lay on his deathbed, he asked to be buried out of doors, where he would be trodden on and rained on. For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then the monks of Winchester attempted to remove his remains to a splendid shrine inside the cathedral on 15 July 971. There was a heavy rain storm during the ceremony, which led to the old wives' tale that if it rains on St Swithin's Day, it will rain for the next 40 days, and a fine 15th July will be followed by 40 days of fine weather. How was it for you?
St. Swithin was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester, famous for charitable gifts and building churches. Legend says that as the Bishop lay on his deathbed, he asked to be buried out of doors, where he would be trodden on and rained on. For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then the monks of Winchester attempted to remove his remains to a splendid shrine inside the cathedral on 15 July 971. There was a heavy rain storm during the ceremony, which led to the old wives' tale that if it rains on St Swithin's Day, it will rain for the next 40 days, and a fine 15th July will be followed by 40 days of fine weather. How was it for you?
