Today in the Zone: Eisheiligen

[Jochen Stremmel]

Thanks again! I grew up with the Eisheiligen as the godmother of my brother
was called Sophie, a rather hot woman. What I was driving at was the depth
of research TRP must have conducted if the ice saints were no thing to
experience in the US of A.

What a nice town to live in, Antwerp, Anvers. Been there two or three
times, the first one luckily before they demolished it to a
Kulturhauptstadt.

It was a nice day here in Cologne, too, though quite cold in the morning,
perhaps 2°C.

Jochen

Am Mo., 13. Mai 2019 um 18:27 Uhr schrieb bulb <bulb at vheissu.net>:

> Am from Rocket-Town Antwerp and have been living in the Netherlands for
> the last 15 years – too long a story to tell.
>
>
>
> The “Eisheiligen” refers to the fact that these days are (theoretically)
> the last ones where the soil can get frozen and some plants cannot survive.
> My father refused to plant leeks, beans, tomatoes for sure, and some others
> before the Eisheiligen were over. I think this is more or less common
> knowledge in the North of France, the BeNeLux and parts of Germany (on
> these days you will hear the national weather forecast regularly  mention
> it).
>
>
>
> Pynchon Notes had an article on the Eisheiligen: Bohm, Arnd. "The 'Cold
> Sophie' of *Gravity's Rainbow* <http://doi.org/10.16995/pn.75>". *Pynchon
> Notes* # 50-51 p. 118-121 (2002), available at
> https://pynchonnotes.openlibhums.org/articles/abstract/10.16995/pn.75/.
> Interestingly enough I only learned through Gravity’s Rainbow that the Cold
> Sophie existed.
>
>
>
> The inverse happens I believe in US East Coast Fall: Indian Summer, an
> unexpected raise in temperature that can disappear from one day to the
> other. However this phenomenon is way more arbitrary (no ‘fixed’dates).
>
>
>
> I always have the feeling after the Eisheiligen that Summer can kick off.
> Weather was excellent today and no frost is expected tonight.
>
>
>
> Michel.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* maandag 13 mei 2019 18:01
> *To:* bulb <bulb at vheissu.net>
> *Cc:* Pynchon List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> *Subject:* Re: Today in the Zone: Eisheiligen
>
>
>
> 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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>
>