29th January 2025 sees the beginning of the new Chinese year – the Year of the Wood Snake. In Chinese culture the snake is seen as a symbol of wisdom, change and agility.
Chinese New Year: The Year of the Snake
Predicting the Weather at Martinmas
November heralds the season of drawing down and drawing in. The clocks have gone back; the evenings are suddenly so much darker. Countryside and garden lose leaves, blooms and colour. All seems to be shrinking in on itself. If a cold snap takes hold we hasten indoors. If those grey lightless days have charge we feel like taking cover and hiding away.
There’s still the possibility, however, that we might be blessed with a brief Indian summer – a spell of mild and sunny autumnal weather falling specifically on the nine days between Martinmas, on the 11th November, and 20th November. Bringing sunny and hazy days this interlude is also known as a ‘Martinmas Summer.’
This welcome phenomenon is said to influence the direction of the wind and therefore the severity of the forthcoming winter.
‘If the wind is southeast on Martinmas, it will stay there till Candlemas’
so we’ll be in for a mild winter. But – if the wind has veered round to the north this suggests that we’ll be in for a hard winter. However, other folklore says that if the weather is warm on St Martin’s Day, then a harsh winter will follow. So, take your pick…
Saint Martin’s Day or Martinmas is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated on 11th November. Martin of Tours (died 397) was a Roman soldier who was baptized as an adult and became a bishop in Gaul. He is best known for cutting his cloak in half with his sword and giving half to a beggar who was dressed in only rags in the depth of winter. That night Martin had a vision of Jesus Christ wearing the very same half-cloak.
In the Middle Ages and early modern period, it was an important festival in many parts of Europe, particularly Germanic-speaking regions. It marked the end of the harvest season –
and the beginning of the “winter revelling season”.
In Welsh mythology Marie Trevelyan recorded that if the hooting of an owl was heard on St Martin’s Day it was seen as a bad omen for that district.
If a meteor was seen, then there would be trouble for the whole nation.
In the 6th century, the church called for fasting on all days, except Saturdays and Sundays, from Saint Martin’s Day to Epiphany. However, this period was shortened to begin on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and became the current Advent within a few centuries.
Do you like having fun? Do you like Weather?
Walking along the road to a small Scottish village some years ago the weather suddenly turned from bright, warm sunshine to chilly, driving rain. A passerby remarked that in those parts nobody ever went out without their waterproofs. We learned the lesson the hard way!
Today it’s often said that there’s no such thing as the wrong weather, only the wrong clothing. Muffled up in a warm coat or a hardy rain jacket it can be fun just to take the weather in one’s stride. And to enjoy it.
It seems to be a particularly British thing, our obsession with The Weather. Most conversations get round to it sooner or later. Very often it’s one of the first things we talk about – it provides such a rich ground for grumbles, obsession and speculation! It changes at the drop of a hat – even with today’s sophisticated computer technology and meteorological modelling the forecasters often fail to get their weather predictions spot on. And so, The Weather is never a dull subject.
A sunny day can suddenly turn to…
…a dramatically stormy day.
Indeed, the etiquette in polite society has long ruled that ‘The Weather’ is a safe topic of conversation when all else fails. In the 18th century novel Sense & Sensibility Jane Austen has one of her characters, Mrs Dashwood, say to her youngest daughter:
‘Hush, Margaret, if you can’t think of anything appropriate to say you will please restrict your remarks to the weather.’
Sometimes its easier to understand the weather than the times we live in. So we turn to a ‘safe’ subject. But even in Biblical times there was a tendency to focus on the weather rather than the social and political times the people were going through. Jesus challenged the people when he said,
“When you see clouds growing bigger in the west, you say, ‘A rainstorm is coming.’ And soon it begins to rain. When you feel the wind begin to blow from the south, you say, ‘It will be a hot day.’ And you are right. You hypocrites! You can understand the weather. Why don’t you understand what is happening now?” 
Then, as now, people were living in difficult times; what was going on in the wider world didn’t always make sense. And it may be that we suffer from confusion and muddle about what goes on in the world today. It is times like these when we perhaps need to focus on the simple things in life – those things we can’t do anything about but just confront head on, endure – and even, enjoy. In his book, That Hideous Strength, CS Lewis writes of a couple who make the most of whatever weather they encounter:
‘We both like Weather. Not this kind or that kind, but just weather. It’s a useful taste if one lives in England… Everyone begins as a child by liking Weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Haven’t you ever noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children - and and the dogs? They know what snow’s made for.’
So, whatever the weather, wherever you are, enjoy it and make the most of it. It’ll change soon enough…
