Seven Sleepers Day

I’ve figured it out!!! I no longer need a Meteorology degree to predict the weather here. Next Wed is Siebenschlaefertag! Seven Sleepers Day, which is the German version of Groundhog’s Day. Ok, so, my details are a little shaky, and I’m gonna warn you that my normal research (aka google-ing and wikipedia-ing (Dude, I’m sooo gonna Wiki that!)) have left me with some holes. My recommendation: Use your imagination and make it up. That’s my plan.

Sooo—Seven Sleepers Day has a couple of meanings from what I’ve come across. It is both an animal (a cute little hibernating dormouse), and also an old Christian Legend. I’ll start with history and work my way into cute little furry creatures.

The Tale
Picture the year 250. Seven men are accused of “Christianity” by the pagan Roman Emperor Decius (Rome didn’t become Christianized until Constantine in 315ish) and, of course, the guys are persecuted. The de-ci-ent Decius (laugh here), gives the seven dudes time to repent. But, in the ways of all martyrs, the Seven give all their money to the poor and go off to a cave to pray. Where they promptly fall asleep. (Whoops.) During their slumber (persecution must be REALLY tiring) Emperor Decius has the cave sealed off. Fast forward now to about 400 a.d. The Landowner of the cave decides to open it up to make cattle pen. And lo! What do his wandering eyes did appear? But seven guys starting to wake up from a long winter’s nap. Long winter’s nap of about 150 years! (Time varies here depending on whom you ask.) The men thought they’d been asleep only one day (crazy Christians) but were thrilled that crosses had replaced the pagan gods. So the sleepy seven become saints—thus Seven Sleepers Day.

The Tail
There actually is an animal the ‘Siebenschlaefer’ that’s some sort of a dormouse. (Actually, believe he’s called the “Edible Dormouse” which makes me think twice about eating sausage.) Anyway, he hibernates not really for seven months, which one would think, given his name, but from about September through the end of May. Now how a dormouse correlates to seven Christians I’ll never know. Makes about as much sense as a fat guy in a red suit coming down your chimney on Jesus’ birthday, huh.

So what does this have to do with weather you ask? No idea. Just that June 27th happens to be called Siebenschlaefertag, and according to the German version of the Farmer’s Almanac, this very day will predict what the weather will be like for the next 7 weeks. Or throughout July. (I’ve read both, so not sure.) They’ve got cute little rhyming things here like:

*Wie das Wetter am Siebenschläfer sich verhält, ist es sieben Wochen lang bestellt. (How the weather behaves on Seven Sleepers Day, is what we order for the next seven weeks. Sorry—no attempt at rhyming.)
*Ist der Siebenschläfer nass, regnet’s ohne Unterlass. (Is the Edible Dormouse wet, then prepare to get seriously soaked. Yep, I took liberties with the translation of that one.)
Or my fav:
*Wenn die Siebenschläfer Regen kochen, dann regnet’s ganze sieben Wochen. (Which I think translates into something like we’re gonna get real wet here if we happen to cook the edible dormouse in rainwater. Blechhh.)

Here’s the kicker. Looks like this forecast is not so accurate for Northern Germany because of the Jet Stream. BUT…in Southern Germany, where we live, it’s 60-70% accurate. Halleluiah! Happy Seven Sleepers Day to all! And to all a Good Night!