Today in the Zone: Eisheiligen
bulb
bulb at vheissu.net
Mon May 13 10:08:38 CDT 2019
GR, 281
"We are safely past the days of the Eis-Heiligen-St. Pancratius, St.
Ser-vatius, St. Bonifacius, die kalte Sophie . . . they hover in clouds
above the vineyards, holy beings of ice, ready with a breath, an intention,
to ruin the year with frost and cold. In certain years, especially War
years, they are short on charity, peevish, smug in their power: not quite
saintly or even Christian. The prayers of growers, pickers and wine
enthusiasts must reach them, but there's no telling how the ice-saints
feel-coarse laughter, pagan annoyance, who understands this rear-guard who
pre-serve winter against the revolutionaries of May?
They found the countryside, this year, at peace by a scant few days. Already
vines are beginning to grow back over dragon's teeth, fallen Stukas, burned
tanks. The sun warms the hillsides, the rivers fall bright as wine. The
saints have refrained. Nights have been mild. The frost didn't come. It is
the spring of peace. The vintage, God granting at least a hundred days of
sun, will be fine.
>From Weisenburger's Companion:
V281.1-2, B327.1-2, P285.1-2 the Eis-Heiligen-St. Pancratius, St. Servatius,
St. Bonifacius, die Kalte Sophie These "Ice Saints" are, in order:
Pancratius and Servatius, whose feast days occur on May 12 and 13,
respectively; Boniface of Ferentino, a Pope (608-15), whose feast day is May
14; and "Cold Sophie," for Saint Sophia, on May 15, a figure added to the
pantheon of die Eisheiligen by German unification in the modern period, for
her feast was originally honored by residents in southern Germany, Austria,
and Switzerland. All four are known as the "Ice Saints" because their feast
days coincide with a final cold spell that often arrives in mid-May (farmers
and wine growers used to burn wet wood, green twigs, and soil, raising a
thick smoky fog over the valleys to help protect new growth and blossoms
from frost). The Ice Saints' days are a threshold, as gardeners wait until
mid-May has passed before planting many seedlings.
Michel.
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