The dog days are upon us. Like every other year. But do these weeks really have anything to do with dogs? Mnja. In ancient Egypt, Sirius appeared in the sky at the same time as the Nile flooded the land and the hottest time of the year began. People thought this was due to the star’s influence. Sirius is also called the Dog Star, and is part of the constellation Big Dog. They therefore called the following month the dog days. In tradition, it is said that all food is prone to rot or mold during the “rot month”. Photo: Alan Levine The food is spoiled In Low German, this became “rodedage”, where rode means dog, and then the road was short to “røtmænaden” in Norwegian. A word with a completely different meaning. Because in the vernacular, the word rot month has been linked to rot, since food in this part of the summer is prone to rot or mould. It is said that dairy products turn sour faster, that the meat spoils and that you should be extra careful with fish and shellfish. Perhaps not so strange when it is often warmer than usual? And there were neither refrigerators nor freezers in the 18th and 19th centuries, when dog days played a big role in almanacs and calendars. In any case, it is possible that several in the oldest generation do not accept this sensible explanation. Listen to Grandma! You may also have heard that it is difficult to whip the cream stiff during the dog days. This is most often due to the fact that it is too hot in the kitchen. But to this day there are still some who believe it has to do with the period itself: – It is impossible to whip cream when it is dog days, said grandmother. She may have been right, but the question is whether it is due to something supernatural. Photo: Tone Rieber-Mohn / news Dog madness and wounds that do not heal All over Europe it is said that dogs easily become mad and unruly at this time of year. In the past, it was believed that in these late summer days there were dangerous forces and poisons that made even the kindest dog dangerous. That is why you should never pet a dog during the dog days. And it wasn’t just dogs that could lose their minds: In Norway, people were warned against indulging in dog days, and it was thought that they could document both depression, suicide and pure madness if people broke the ban. There were also purely physical dangers: you shouldn’t sit on the ground, for example, because then you could get skin diseases and boils. And if you got a wound during this period, it would take a long time to heal. The dog days coincide with the hottest month, so it is perhaps not strange if some dogs are extra grumpy now? Photo: Illustration photo Dani Cardona / Reuters Corpses float out of the sea Old superstitions said that the water was poisoned at this time, so one must not bathe in any case. It is true that more micro-organisms flourish when the water warms up, and there are also extra large numbers of glass and jellyfish in the sea during this period. It is said that the sea cleans itself in the dog days, and that things rise to the surface. This is not entirely illogical. When the temperature in the sea is high and the nutrient content in the water is low due to algae growth, it can cause organic material to float up, but people also believed that people who had disappeared at sea floated up and towards land. – Along the coast there is hardly any talk of faith. Those who lose someone at sea by drowning hope to see their loved ones again when the sea thickens and the body floats ashore in the dog days, folklorist Toril Torlei told news. Also in many rivers and waters there is heavy algae growth during the dog days, with a lot of green slime which makes fishing difficult and the trout less willing to bite. In the old days, this could probably provide fertile ground for superstition and myths, whereas today people are more solution-oriented: “If there are many white clouds in the sky during the dog days, there will be a lot of snow in the coming winter” is one of the many superstitious signs the farmers believed in. Photo: Wikimedia commons Weather signs for trouble In the past, the Dog Days were important because they were critical for crops, but also because they predicted the weather for the rest of the summer. The latter has a touch of truth in it, state meteorologist John Smiths previously told news. – At the end of July and the beginning of August, we are in a period of persistence. That is to say, once the atmosphere has now decided to maintain one type of weather, it has difficulty changing its mind. There is, however, a slight inconsistency in the old weather signs: In several places it was said that if the dog days started with rain, they ended with wet weather. And that good weather at the start would lead to good weather throughout the autumn. Elsewhere they said that if they went in with rain, they went out with sun – or vice versa. Some believed that if the third dog day is good, all the others will be bad. In some areas, there has been a sign that there will be rain around 23 August, if the period starts with sunshine. And: If it rains on the seventh day on July 27, it will rain for seven weeks. Confused? It was probably the farmers too. They should rather rely on some weather signs that are actually correct. On 23 August we can breathe a sigh of relief – the dog days are over. The day after, Barsok, is the first day of autumn. Barsok also has a number of warnings about autumn and winter, but we can talk about that another time.
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