Important dates loom this month... and not just in politics

We seem to be bombarded by dates these days – July 15, for instance, as well as July 12, which is linked to July 19. 

Admittedly, next Thursday, will mean nothing to Kenyans, or anyone else for that matter, but it will have a particular resonance here in the UK. For July 15 is the feast of Saint Swithun, who has long been associated with the weather, and this country is keenly interested in our weather. 

Why should this baffle foreigners? 

After all, our climate is mild and temperate, rarely very hot or exceedingly cold; we never have droughts or hurricanes; forest fires are unknown and icy glaciers are for the Polar regions. Nobody ever dies from the weather here. 

Be that as it may, there is a rhyme that children love to chant when the feast of this long-ago bishop of Winchester comes round. 

It goes as follows: 

Saint Swithun’s day, if thou dost rain, 

For forty days it will remain; 

Saint Swithun’s day, if thou be fair, 

for forty days ’twill rain nae mair. 

In other words, if it rains on July 15, it will rain for 40 days afterwards. 

No rain on the day means cloudless skies for a month and a bit thereafter. 

Anyone living here or visiting Britain will quickly spot signs of our weather obsession because we are always looking darkly at the skies and repeating one of our favourite sayings. 

For instance: “It’s raining cats and dogs; the sun is splitting the trees; it’s blowing a gale; it’s that fine rain that soaks you through; it’s the calm before the storm; it’s blowing a hooley out there.” 

And pleadings from all and sundry, especially if a picnic is planned, “Rain, rain, go away, come back another day.” 

Not that we are the only people who have sayings about the weather. 

In Turkey, for instance, they say, “If the sky doesn’t cry, the earth won’t laugh.” 

The French also have a saying about the rain but it is too rude to set down here. 

Finally, what did Saint Swithun do to secure this legend? 

The evidence is fragmentary, but folklore says that he asked to be buried in the churchyard so that rain could fall on his grave. 

Later, his body was moved into Winchester Cathedral and a great storm ensued. 

The lesson: Don’t muck about with St Swithun! 

As for July 12 and 19, you have probably guessed that they mark the lifting of the remaining anti-Covid restrictions which still rule our lives. 

If approved tomorrow, a whole raft of rules will be lifted on July 19, including an end to the compulsory wearing of masks and staying a metre away from each other. There will be no limits on social contact. 

As for hospitality and business, customers may sit or stand wherever they like in pubs and restaurants; attendance limits will be removed from theatres, concerts and sporting events; night clubs will reopen; there will be no limits on numbers at weddings or funerals and congregational hymn-singing will be permitted in church. 

Not everyone is happy about the relaxations, pointing out that Covid cases are still rising. What scientists point out, however, is that the nationwide vaccination programme has seriously weakened the link between infections and death. 

People are still falling ill but the infection is less virulent and fewer are dying. 

What the government wants is to move away from legal restrictions and instead, in the words of the prime minister, “allow people to make their own informed decisions about how to manage the virus.” 

He did add, however, that the pandemic is “far from over.” 

***

Politics and the weather notwithstanding, the biggest of all talking points these past weeks has been football, specifically the 2020 European Championship. 

Denied normal access to many football grounds, huge mobs of England fans (Scotland and Wales, alas, fell to early defeats) gathered in special, outside areas to sup beer and watch the progress of the national side on huge TV screens. Prominent in all the chanting were the words, “It’s coming home.” 

In case you were wondering, this is a reference to England as the home of football.

Other countries claim this distinction and certainly many societies saw groups of young men kicking inflated pigs’ bladders around a field many years ago. 

However, England was the first nation to codify behaviour and lay down rules for the game, when it set up the Football Association in 1863. 

One of the risks in writing about the future is being left red-faced and embarrassed by reality. So let us wait for two more important dates to pass – the July 14 semi-final between England and Denmark and the July 18 final between Anon and Anon. The doors are always open if football should eventually come home. 

[email protected]