Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday – things have been a bit odd here and I’ll explain at the end of the week.
Today is one of the feast days of St. Thomas and there are two old sayings for this day. Although the second doesn’t quite fit for this year as the true Solstice is tomorrow early morning.
Look at the weathercock at noon on St Thomas’s Day and whichever way the wind blows from it will stay that way for the next lunar quarter
St Thomas grey, St Thomas grey
Longest night and shortest day
In the past St. Thomas’s Day was a excuse for ‘gooding’, which involved begging for food in return for a small bunch of greenery. In some places this was called ‘Doleing’. The dole given was usually some flour for making bread with the wheat donated by a wealthy farmer and ground without charge by the miller.
St Thomas was also known as Didymous and Doubting Thomas – one of the first apostles. Details of his life after his appearance in the gospels are uncertain . He is thought to have gone as a missionary to India and to have been martyred at Madras. His special day now is usually marked on July 3rd.
| St Thomas by Rubens from around 1612 |
Back Tomorrow
Sue
