Today in the Zone: Eisheiligen

[Jochen Stremmel]

Thanks, Michel! You're living in France, I reckon. Is there such a
phenomenon in the US as well?

Am Mo., 13. Mai 2019 um 17:10 Uhr schrieb bulb <bulb at vheissu.net>:

> 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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>