#weather folklore

[omnificent-orion]

A comic for a certain someone’s generosity (who was thwarted in remaining anonymous hahaha!)

Thank you.

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Image description: A monochrome comic set in Scala ad Caelum. It is winter.

PAGE ONE Panel 1: Young Xehanort is seen from above, his eyes closed as snow falls. His hood is up and he is wearing a loose wrap. Panel 2: Xehanort's expression changes to annoyance as the sound of Eraqus shivering interrupts the quiet. Panel 3: "You're not bothered by the cold at all, huh?" asks Eraqus. His only brace against the weather is his usual robe and a long scarf. "Being unbothered and not complaining aren't the same thing." Panel 4: Eraqus tries to warm himself by blowing on his hands. "It'll be nicer tomorrow," states Xehanort. Panel 5: "How do YOU know?" Eraqus whines. Xehanort tries to help Eraqus warm up with friction by quickly rubbing his arms with his gloved hands.

PAGE TWO Panel 1: Xehanort looks up into the snowy sky. Smoke can be seen rising from several chimneys. "Well, when smoke falls without wind, or floats west, it'll rain." Panel 2: "If it rises even in foul weather, or floats east, fair weather is on it's way," the statement is continued by Xehanort's mysterious robed mentor from his childhood on Destiny Islands. They sit in a wooden shack watching the rain pour down outside. Panel 3 & 4: "Huh? Really??" the question is asked by both Eraqus and an even younger Xehanort who is sitting beside his mentor. Panel 5 & 6: "Ha ha, don't believe me?" lilts Xehanort and his mentor in parallel.

PAGE THREE Panel 1: "Sounds like an Old Wive's Tale to me," states Eraqus, louder now that he's warmer. Panel 2: Xehanort folds his arms, tucking his hands under his wrap. "We'll see how you feel about it this time tomorrow," he smirks. Unconvinced, Eraqus retorts "Now it's going to snow even harder..." Panel 3: Xehanort and Eraqus walk side-by-side, shoulders pressed together. "If you talk about bad things happening, they will." Xehanort states with an air of undue superiority. "Oh yeah?" says Eraqus, "What other WISE words does the WISE man have to share?" Panel 4: "If you point at shooting stars," says Xehanort, "You'll die." "WHAT!?" Snow cloaks the city and smoke rises.

[allgirlsareprincesses]

Star Lovers in Folk Tales: A Primer

Adapted from my Winter 2022 Twitter thread

One common variation of animal spouse tales is the star husband or star bride. In this case, the lover is a celestial creature from the otherworld of the sky. Sometimes they fall to earth, and other times they beckon a mortal to join them.

Star husband tales are common to North American indigenous cultures, often featuring pairs of maidens who long for more than mortal lovers and so are whisked into the sky to marry star husbands.

In these tales, the mortal brides are compelled to dig, either to find roots or other food on earth, or to escape the sky world. In either case, the digging is a transgressive act, one that triggers the bride’s passage from one world to another.

Another star husband tale comes from Korea, merged with another animal husband tale in which he is banished from the sky by his father, the King of the Stars, cursed to live as a frog in a pond until he can marry the most beautiful woman on Earth.

In this tale we find motifs of the frog consuming all the water and fish in the pond, and the bride cutting away (rather violently) the frog’s animal skin to reveal a handsome man. The happy couple then returns to the sky, and two new stars appear in the heavens.

Star brides have much more in common with swan maidens. Many myths compare the sky to a body of water, and in some tales, celestial beings are actually aquatic creatures as well. These brides are often captured by a mortal hunter or held captive by a mother goddess.

Like the mortal wives of star husbands, star brides often come in groups, like the Pleiades in a South African tale who send their husband on a hunt from which he never returns. Similarly, a group of 10 Hungarian star brides take mortal husbands only to lose them in a war.

In all of these stories, the fall to earth is a kind of death, whereas the ascension is a rebirth or even the achievement of immortality. Water, hunting, and agriculture are prominent in these stories, indicating the importance of celestial patterns to human subsistence.

Obedience or defiance to parental figures is another major theme in star lover tales. While it is defiance that opens the path to the otherworld, the lovers are often punished for it until they show obedience to the parent.

Lastly, while not every star couple gets a Happily Ever After, they usually leave some eternal mark on the earth or sky. The tears of separated star lovers sometimes form fresh springs or even monsoons, bringing new life to the earth.

Sources:

In Search of the Swan Maiden: A Narrative on Folklore and Gender by Barbara Fass Leavy

[apenitentialprayer]

is there a patron saint of weather??

Yes! Several, in fact.

Saint Dimitar is associated with winter and frost, but I think that has more to do with the dating of his feast day than any miraculous winter hijinks.

But speaking of miraculous winter hijinks, Our Lady Queen of Snows is a title for the Virgin Mary, given to her after she caused a snowfall in the middle of August in order to designate the location of a chapel she wanted built in her honor. Growing up, my mother taught us the following prayer for when we were really hoping for a snowday: "Our Lady, Queen of Snows, dump on us!"

Saint Swithin's Day has a legend associated with rain; if it rains on his feast day (July 15th, so coming up), it's supposed to be followed by a very wet 40 days. If it's dry on the other hand, well, you get the idea.

Saint Méard is another rain-saint, but in this case he's specifically supposed to protect you against the rain. His legend says that he was protected from a particularly nasty rain storm by an eagle.

Saint Anne, the Mother of Mary, is associated with storms, too. Actually, there's a rather famous case of a man who asked for Anne's intercession when caught in a bad storm, promising to become a monk if he survived. That man was Martin Luther.

I'm sure there are a ton of others; there's one saint associated with wind, he is supposed to have saved a city from a fleet of ships, but I can't remember his name. But I hope this helps as a start!

[dianasson]

Witches on the Wind: Weather Magic in New England Folktales

Zephyros Craven, 2023

".... The young shipmaster known as Skipper Perkins is about to set sail from Kittery with his fishing crew. Old Betty Booker, a known witch from the town, asks him to bring her back some halibut. He laughs at her and chastises her for begging, so she promises to take her revenge. Sure enough, old Betty Booker scratches her way into his house one stormy night, strips him naked and bridles him, then rides him ragged through the wind and rain down to York Harbor and back before sunrise. In the end, Skipper Perkins “more dead than alive” has learned to be kinder to his neighbors. But before old Betty Booker bridled the shipmaster, she had performed a feat of weather magic: she had summoned a storm, which had battered his ship, ripped his sails, driven away the fish, and made his men sick. Her use of weather magic endangered the safety and livelihoods of these sailors. As striking as this story is, what surprised me most was not its peculiarity but rather how commonplace it is among the region’s tales. The coast of New England is teaming with folk stories of witches summoning storms or holding the wind hostage, of wicked men buying wind from the sea, and of Finnish wizards selling their skills for shaping the waves and weather. The motifs encapsulated in these tales and their presence in English, Scottish, and Irish stories tell us about their history. Europeans brought these stories with them when they made new homes here, but New England was not the only region inhabited by people from those countries. What factors made weather magic stories so prominent in New England? ...."

Comment or DM for a link to the full essay!

[muriers]

Here's a last minute treat for @blocky-tides for the @mcyt-drabble-exchange (~˘▾˘)~

---

The sky seemed to split from a force that shook the clouds, revealing between two halves of a dark storm the bright blue sky beyond. 

Stress could see the glimmer of orange-yellow-red scales steaming with a trail of mist.

A dragon.

The dragon descended from the heavens, but when it landed the large form then began dissipating into the form of a familiar figure with glowing green eyes, unmistakably inhuman.

The field of flowers, which had been wilting for months, flourished around them.

“Hello,” Stress smiled after a moment of hesitation.

The tension melted out of Cleo’s shoulders, “Hello again.”

[adobealmanac]

Isidro's Well

There may be times in life when you desire nothing more than to stand outside in the sun, but a large cloud hinders that desire, as it brings rain with it. This ritual will help with that.

Begin by making a cross out of course salt on the ground outside. It does not need to be large. Begin to dance about it. Then ask San Isidro, just this once, to stop the rain, and that in thanks you will send him to where the land is arid.

You will see how the rain moves away and the sky begins to clean. Good luck!

[weepingfoxfury]

The man on the radio is whooshing through his Wednesday morning show and wishing David Hasselhoff a Happy Birthday now he's 72. Weatherwise there's actually some sunshine and people are sending in pictures of it to the man on the radio just to prove it's really happening. The traffic lady talked of this and that accident before comparing sunshine photos with the man on the radio.

Today's groaner: an apple a day keeps the Doctor away ... an orange a day keeps the dentist away ... basically, if you throw fruit at people they go away ;-D badoom tish ... here all week!!

A little white fairy rose followed me home the other day. No actual fairies in evidence yet despite the Emerald Isle's fondness for them, but the clusters of flowers are beautiful. Remains of Fairy Forts are common here and, according to folklore, fiercely defended by their supernatural occupants. As legend has it, woe betide those who attempt to destroy a Fairy Fort, death/misfortune will be theirs as has been reported by the families of many a farmer. Best to stay in the right side of The Good People it would seem.

Ach well, time to carry on with the usual this, that and the other ... but a little more coffee first ...

[drum-cu-naluci]

This could be a very nice jacket

[vox-anglosphere]

Wiarton Willie awakens from a winter nap to forecast an early spring!

[kimberly40]

Fall Foliage Folklore:

Today we have the National Weather Service and Accuweather. But before the coming of science-based weather forecasting, we attempted to see predictions and indicators in the natural world.

Here is some weather folklore focused on trees, leaves, nuts and more in the fall:

•The brighter the leaf colors in fall, the colder and snowier will be the winter.

•The earlier fall color peaks, the milder will be the winter.

•Leaves that drop early portend a mild winter. Leaves that cling to their trees later into autumn foreshadow a severe winter.

•When plants that usually bloom in spring have a second bloom in fall, expect a cold winter.

•Ground that is covered by acorns in the fall will be covered by snow throughout winter.

•Tree branches cracking and snapping in the fall forecast a coming period of dry weather.

•When a persimmon seed is cut open, the white marking inside reveals the following information about the coming winter: If it's shaped like a knife, winter's winds will be biting and the season will be cold. It it's shaped like a fork, expect a relatively average winter. If it looks like spoon, expect to shovel plenty of snow.

•An unusually thick shell on a hickory nut promises an unusually cold winter.

The common thread running through all those bits of folklore is the fact that each one tells us more about conditions leading into the fall - growing conditions and climate - than about conditions down the road.

Nevertheless, folklore is fun to play around with, just to discover how true it will hold.

Also, here are a couple common myths about fall color:

•More myth than folklore: Anthocyanin, the molecule that gives leaves their red color, is produced only in late summer and fall.

-The facts: Leaf color is determined by relative amounts of chlorophyll (green), carotenoid (yellow) and anthocyanin (red). Although anthocyanin is at a high in the fall, it is present at other times of the year, which explains leaves that sprout red in the spring before turning green.

•More myth than folklore: Trees leaves turn red in the fall as a defense against insects or the sun.

-The facts: Lab-based research has not borne out that hypothesis.

*Pictured is Buck Creek Gap at Milepost: 344.2 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in McDowell County, North Carolina

[perfectplaces]

pandemic 2020 albums give me a different type of nostalgia that i can’t even put into words 😵‍💫

[platosshadowpuppet]

The fog changes things. Haar, or sea fret, is a common autumn phenomena in Edinburgh. It pours thickly from the Forth to swathe the city in milk white salt smelling clouds.

It stays for days, blocking out the sky and deadening sound. Its insidious chill seeping in everywhere.

When it lifts, the city is reborn. But each time little things have changed. Colours have shifted, streets have twisted, and the crags seem to loom somehow closer than before.

I always wonder which it is the fog has changed; the world, or me?

[alexkujawa]

Here's my original ink drawing of Płanetnik and the colored illustration from my book, 𝟑𝟏 𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐘𝐓𝐇 & 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 available on my ETSY 🖤💀🌿

[niallsecretlove]

i love how my vinyl collection keep growing 🥹💞

[highladyofterrasen7]

It’s a big day for me

[prettygirlsmakegraves07]

First snow of the season