C A N D L E M A S

Every year on Candlemas I hand dip candles.
It takes about 100 dippings to make one pair.
This is a tradition my family has done since our early days of home schooling.
Now that the children are grown, I have a friend come over or work alone.
This year I'm on my own. I don't mind at all.   
How many pair do you think I can make today?


According to an old English song:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, Winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.

According to an old Scottish couplet:

If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
There'll be twa (two) winters in the year.
Another variation of the Scottish rhyme:

If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
The half o' winter to come and mair,
If Candlemas day be wet and foul,
The half of winter's gone at Yule.

Pennsylvania's Earliest German settlers recited:

For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day,
So far will the snow swirl until the May.

American 19th century farmers, recited:

Groundhog Day - Half your hay.


Anybody got a Farmer's Almanac?  :-)


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