Hello Thomas! On Friday, June 03, 2005, 9:14 AM, you wrote:
MB>> ... wow, I learned something here: It derived a bit from MB>> Candlemas Day, celebrated by early German settlers > Funny, I've never heard of Candlemas. Does it have anything to do with > Siebenschlaefer? Not knowing what Siebenschlaefer is, I did a google on it. Unfortunately, my German skills are not even proficient enough for me to read the page with any ease. Here's the link, don't know why the "afer" section of it is in a different font. So, copy&paste into your browser if you want to go there, I guess: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siebenschl�fer Here's the link to the extremely informative site on the history of Groundhog Day, February 2, in the U.S.: http://www.stormfax.com/ghogday.htm And, below, a quote from the link just above, the relevant paragraph on the early German settlers in Pennsylvania: ===================================================================== > When German settlers arrived in the 1700s, they brought a tradition > known as Candlemas Day, which has an early origin in the pagan > celebration of Imbolc. It came at the mid-point between the Winter > Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Superstition held that if the > weather was fair, the second half of Winter would be stormy and > cold. For the early Christians in Europe, it was the custom on > Candlemas Day for clergy to bless candles and distribute them to the > people in the dark of Winter. A lighted candle was placed in each > window of the home. The day's weather continued to be important. If > the sun came out February 2, halfway between Winter and Spring, it > meant six more weeks of wintry weather. ====================================================================== Thomas, is your mail still slow in downloading? I note with concern that you are still almost a week behind in reading the List posts. :woe: Let us now adjourn to TBOT, in, I hope, a sufficiently timely manner to escape a hail of trout as big as the whale in *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!* h2g2 -- Best regards, Mary The Bat 3.5.25 on Windows XP 5.1 2600 Service Pack 2 ________________________________________________________ Current beta is 3.5.25 | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html IMPORTANT: To register as a Beta tester, use this link first - http://www.ritlabs.com/en/partners/testers/
