October 16 – St. Gallus Day in Switzerland

nPostednon October 16, 2015

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nPeoplenwho are farmers live more by the sun, even, than the rest of us do –nand this was especially true back in the past, when we had fewer waysnto get around nature’s limitations!

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nFarmersnhad to worry about sunlight for their crops and weather affectingnboth crops and livestock. They often started work at daybreak andnended at sundown. They tried to capitalize on sunny summers and rainynseasons. They were careful to harvest crops before they froze.

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nToday,nSt. Gallus Day, was all about agricultural traditions…and weathernprediction.

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n Rainn on St. Gallus Day was thought to be a sign of good luck – BUT, if theren was a lot of rain on St. Gallus Day, it was thought to be a signn that rains would continue until Christmas. If there was no rain, itn was thought to be a sign that the next summer would be dry.
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n Farmersn hastened to store all the fruit that would be used as seed for nextn year in the cellar, AND to store all eating apples in the cellar, byn this date.
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n Aftern St. Gallus Day, farmers started butchering and smoking their hams andn started keeping their cows warm and safe in barns.

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nSt.nGallus (also known as St. Gall) was born in Ireland but lived much ofnhis long life in Switzerland. However, according to what I read, henenjoyed a lot of popularity in Germany as well as Switzerland. (Fornexample, a week-long festival used be held in his name in Germany.)

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Thenmost popular legend about St. Gallus is that, when the saint wasntraveling through the woods, he had built a campfire and was sitting near it, warmingnhis hands. Suddenly, a bear came into the clearing and started toncharge Gallus. He held up his hands and commanded the bear to stop – and the bear stopped running toward himnand then slunk back into the forest.

The legend goes on to say that the bear gathered some more firewood and then came back to the campfire to help stoke the firenand to share in its heat. From then on, people say that St. Gallusnwas accompanied by that bear.

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nDidnyou know…?

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n Switzerland’sn 2-letter country code is CH…which is surely a bit unexpected! In mean, the United States’ code is US, Thailand’s is TH, Swaziland’s isn SZ…so why is Switzerland’s CH?

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nThenofficial name of Switzerland is Confoederatio Helvetica (whichnis Latin for Swiss Confederation). So…CH makes sense.

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nFor some uses, countries also have 3-letter country codes. The United States’ code isn(you guessed it) USA, and Switzerland’s is CHE (obviously fornConfoederatio HElvetica).

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nSometimesnSwitzerland is abbreviated SUI…Like on a tennis match, when you arenwatching Swiss tennis great Roger Federer annihilating his opponent,nyou will often see Federer (SUI). This abbreviation comes from thenFrench word for Switzerland, which is la Suisse.

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n Evenn though Switzerland is between West Virginia and Maryland in size,n the nation has FOUR official languages: German, French, Italian, andn Romansh.

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nCERN,n the world’s largest particle physics lab, is located on the bordern between Switzerland and France, near Geneva, Switzerland. Thisn research organization, made up of 21 European countries plus Israel,n is doing incredibly exciting work that will probably speak to then beginnings and endings of the universe and other big questions!n

CERN stands for “Conseiln Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire.”

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Inwas interested to discover that there is an Arts@CERN program, withnartists winning residencies so that they can soak up some of thenenergy and interesting notions at CERN and then weave them into theirndance, music, or visual arts!

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nChecknout the videos at the Arts@CERN website.

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nAlsonon this date: