Thoughts and sayings about January

                                                          Ice in front flowerbed last year

Now that the Christmas things are put away and the snow has come and gone, I’m ready for warmer weather—at least 50 degrees warmer, please, Mother Nature. Then I can get the front door painted, the back screen door re-screened, the frozen mums cut and composted and other cosmetic stuff around here, both inside and out.

Alas, I know it’s not to be, except for an occasional warm-up, and that the coldest part of winter is still ahead. In Edward F. Dolan’s The Old Farmer’s Almanac: Book of Weather Lore (purchased at the Higdon Ferry flea market some time back) I found these older sayings about months and their weather: predictions, both optimistic and pessimistic.

“January warm,
The Lord have mercy.”

“January wet,
No wine you get.” (grapes won’t produce?)

“If you see grass in January,
Lock your grain in your granary.”

If the following proverb/belief ever works out as true, credit goes to coincidence, Dolan says: “The date of the month on which the first snow falls gives the number of storms that the winter will bring.” Oh-my-goodness! If that be so, we’re looking at six more winter storms! Let’s hope . . . . [insert your own hope in this space.]

Contradictions in much weather lore makes for a fun read, but four other factors played a part in these adages about January weather: local weather, times of the month, religious hopes for what the weather on a feast day portended, and local interpretations of what was intended by certain wordings.

“March in Janiveer (January), 

Janiveer in March, I fear.”

“Remember on St. Vincent’s Day, (January 22)

If the sun his beams display, 

Be sure to mark the transient beam, 

Which through the casement sheds a gleam; 

For ‘tis a token bright and clear

Of prosperous weather all the year.”

“If St. Paul (St. Paul’s Day January 25) be fair and clear, 

It promises then a happy year; 

But if it chance to snow or rain,

There will be dear all sorts of grain; 

Or if the winds do blow aloft, 

Great stirs will vex the world full oft; 

And if dark clouds do muff the sky, 

The fowl and cattle oft will die.” 

According to the Trivia feature in one year’s Arkansas Living, celebrating the arrival of a new year dates back 4,000 years to ancient Babylon.

The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square took place in 1904 and included fireworks. In 1907, because of a ban on fireworks, a 700-pound iron and wood ball that was illuminated with 199 25-watt lightbulbs was lowered in the square at midnight, marking the beginning of a celebration that continues today, albeit with a different ball.

Other years’ trivia appropriate for the new year are, “There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogs.” –Hal Borland, and “What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.”—Vern McLellan. Another one makes me smile in sympathy: “I need my sleep. I need ‘bout eight hours a day, and about 10 at night.” –Comedian Bill Hicks. I’ll add, ‘especially during the winter.’

Finally, a quote from Abraham Lincoln: “My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of Earth.”