happy? - July 15 (Niagara Falls park)

Subject: happy? - July 15
From: Abby Sale
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 11:55 AM

New York creates the state park at Niagara Falls, 7/15/1885

          From city, town and hamlet there came a merry throng
          To view the great Niagara, with joy they sped along.
  
                  "The Chatsworth Wreck," from Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin, Peters
                  also DigTrad filename[ CHATWRCK.
  
  ALSO: 
          My first trip dawn old Lake Erie,
          With some sailors to explore;
                  A-singing, way, Niagara,
                  Below Niagara Falls.
          Then I met Rosy O'Flannagan,
          Best of all the Buffalo whores.
                  A-singing, way, Niagara,
                  Below Niagara Falls.
  
          Text recorded without tune by Ivan Walton 1934.  See Windjammers: Songs of the
          Great Lakes Sailors.  Tune & chorus well-added by Lee Murdock, sung by
          "Hoolie" (And me.) [Quiz: What's this a version of?]

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
What are Happy's all about? See Clicky

Subject: RE: happy? - July 15
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 06:21 PM

It's St Swithuns' day today.

A 9th Century bishop of Winchester, he requested that he be buried in the churchyard, rather than the cathedral. When he died they buried him in a shrine in the cathedral and it started raining. It rained for 40 days. The clergy got together and took him out of the shrine and buried him in the churchyard, whereupon it stopped raining.

Since then, if the 15th July has been fine, we've had a fine summer.. if it rains, we have a wet summer.


It's based on meteorological fact - mid July usually heralds a period of settled weather. Trouble is, if it's settled at rainy, that's what we get for 6 weeks!

Today was fine and sunny and hot... here's looking forward to the next 39 days.

LTS

Subject: RE: happy? - July 15
From: Abby Sale
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 06:43 PM

:-) Thanks, LtS. Good new info. And I didn't know that solid meteorological stuff. I do actually have a St Swithins thing. It may be of vital importance & interest to everyone in the world, but it ain't a Happy! without it connects to a folk-thing. However, it does so connect...

        "St. Swithin's Day if thou dost rain,
        For forty days it will remain;
        St. Swithin's Day if thou be fair,
        For forty days 'twill rain na mair"

                _English Folk-Rhymes_, GF Northall, 1892

Oddly, Northall gives a somewhat different explanation for the same burial info. He gives that the good bishop wanted to be buried in the open so God's rain would fall on his grave. To honor him at canonization, the monks decided to move him into the choir on 7/15. But it rained for 40 days & they decided to forget it.

Subject: RE: happy? - July 15
From: Abby Sale
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 07:19 PM

LtS; I'm getting a bit daft here. Even I, it seems, can't tell what I'm doing. I did use St S today - for the Happy! This here thread is the happy? where things you can't say "Happy xxx" about go. Six hours later & I'd already forgotten.

Sigh.

Subject: RE: happy? - July 15
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 08:30 PM

Ah.. I missed that one....

There is a folk song about St Swithun, a mate of mine used to sing it... but it's been so long since I heard it I can only remember the 'tis the fifteenth of July' line.....

LTS