Photo was taken at West End, Millstreet, Co.Cork (Irl)

It may have been a rest day in the Tour De France yesterday but there was plenty of action in a recent cycling road race in Millstreet!

Thought on Tuesday – July – 16/07/2013

‘Superstition is the poetry of life.’ ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Yesterday (July 15th) was St Swithin’s Day. Thankfully it was dry right across Ireland. If it rained, tradition and superstition would say that it would continue doing so for 40 days after. St Swithin’s Day is one of the most famous of all the weather related saint’s days. He died in 862 and was buried outside Winchester Cathedral. Later when he was canonised a saint his body was instructed to be moved into a tomb within the Cathedral. Legend has it that on the day the body was to be moved a storm broke on July 15th 971. It broke the end of a long dry spell and it continued to rain for a further 40 days after. This led the monks believing it was ‘Divine Displeasure’ and left the body in its original place.

It is quite clear from weather records that there is little evidence to support the theory of 40 days of rain after Swithin’s Day. But tradition and superstition have deeply embedded roots in the human psyche that need to be respected. There are though some superstitions that are built on fear particularly chain letters or chain emails and the door always needs to be closed on these superstitions. One thread throughout the Gospel stories is that wherever Jesus found fear, he brought calm, peace and always a sense of hope and great optimism.