It’s June already? What
happened to May?
“June. The sixth month of
the year in the modern or Gregorian calendar. Ovid in the "Fasti" indicates that it was named
after Juno, but a more likely etymon derives it from Juniores, the lower branch
of the original Roman legislature, as that of May was from the higher branch.
In the old Latin or Alban calendar the month of June had but twenty-six
days. Romulus gave it thirty. This
was reduced to twenty-nine by Numa, and restored to thirty by Julius Caesar, a
number it has ever since retained.”
“Among the old Romans June
was a lucky as May was an unlucky month for marriages, the especially favorable
seasons being at full moon and at the conjunction of the sun and moon.” William
Walsh, Curiosities of Popular Customs
(1898) p. 591
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Astronomy for June:
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Liturgical Celebrations
Saint Justin …………………………… 1
June
Corpus Christi
……………………….. 2 June
Saint Boniface
……………………….. 5 June
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
………….. 7 June
Immaculate Heart of Mary
…………… 8 June
Saint Barnabas ………………………. 11
June
Saint Anthony of Padua …………….. 13 June
Saint Basil the Great ………………..
14 June
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
…………….. 21 June
Nativity of St. John the
Baptist ……… 24 June
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
…………. 27 June
Saint Irenaeus
……………………….. 28 June
Saint Peter and Saint Paul,
Apostles…. 29 June
Saint Paul the Apostle
……………… 30 June
Novenas forJune
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Weather for June:
According to the 12 Days of
Christmas: Bright sunshine and clear skies. Beautiful!
According to the first 12
days of January: Precipitation early; cloudy skies, warm.
According to the Ember Days:
Sunny to start with, ending with rain.
Weather Lore for June:
A June damp and warm does
the farmer no harm.
If June be sunny, harvest
comes early.
A dry June means a good corn
crop.
June that is dry more than
it is wet fills the barrels with good wine.
Calm weather in June, sets
corn in tune.
A cold and wet June spoils
the rest of the year.
however
A good leak in June sets all
in tune.
and
A wet June makes a dry September.
When it is hottest in June,
it will be coldest in the corresponding days of next February. [I don't even want to think about February
yet]
Mist in May and heat in
June,
Make the harvest come right
soon.
Thunder in June means a good
year for straw and hay.
“Thunder in June signifies
that same year that woods shall be overthrown with winds, and great raging
shall be of lions and wolves, and so like of other harmful beasts.” Book
of Knowledge [which is only natural
if their domiciles have been overthrown with winds…]
6/1 - 3 If it rains in
the first three days of June, there will be no wild grapes.
6/1 If St. Fortunatus’ day be fine, we
may expect a fruitful season [except possibly
for the wild grapes]
If it rains on
June 1st, there will be fifty-seven rains in June, July, and August.
6/2 If it rains on
June 2nd, there will be no blackberries.
6/6 If it rains on
June 6th, there will be no mast [nuts of
forest trees, such as acorns, upon which hogs 'pastured' in the forests feed.]
The rains that fall on
St. Norbert’s day inundate the earth [i.e.
expect the rains to be heavy]
6/8 If it rains on St.
Médard's day, it will rain for forty days, unless it is dry on St. Barnabas [and then all bets are off]
and
If it rains on St. Médard's day, there will be a wet harvest.
and
If it rains on the day of Saint
Médard, we will not have wine nor lard.
6/10 If it rains on St. Margaret’s day, it
will rain for fourteen days.
6/11 If it rains on
St. Barnabas' day, it is good for grapes
and
The general character of the
weather during the last twenty days of June will rule the weather for the
Summer.
6/15 If St.
Vitus Day be rainy weather, it will rain for thirty days together.
If it rains on St. Vitus’ day,
the year will be fruitful.
On the other hand
When it rains on St. Vitus’ day,
half of the grapes will be destroyed.
and
When St. Vitus’ day is rainy, the
oats will not thrive.
6/19 If it rains on
the day of Saint Protais and Gervais, it will rain for forty days after.
6/20 As the wind and
weather at the solstices, so will they be for the next three months.
The first
three days of any season rule the weather for that season.
6/23 If it rains on the eve of St.
John’s day, the filberts (hazelnuts) will be spoiled.
6/24 If it rains today, we may expect
a wet harvest.
Midsummer rain spoils hay and grain.
If it rains on St. John's Day, nuts will spoil and wicked women will thrive [how wicked?], but apples, pears, and
plums will not be hurt.
If it rains
on St. John’s day, it will rain another four weeks, and we can expect a poor
harvest.
6/26 Weather on the last Sunday of the
month indicates the weather for the next month
6/27 If it rains on June 27th, it
will rain seven weeks.
6/28 If it rains on the eve of St. Peter,
the vintage will be reduced by one-third.
6/29 If it rains on the day of Saints Peter
and Paul it will rain for the next 30 days.
And
It always rains on St.
Peter’s day [so putting two and two
together…]
On the other hand
If it is bright and clear on
St. Paul’s day, we will have full mouths and full purses.
[Let us hope that it rains
in between the above days (except for St. Fortunatus and St. Barnabas). A
good soak is one thing; drowning my seeds and new plants is quite another]
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Gardening for June
June brings tulips, lilies,
roses,
Fills the children’s hands
with posies.
When St. Bamaby bright
smiles night and day, (June 11)
Poor Ragged Robin blooms in
the hay.
The scarlet Lychnis, the
garden's pride,
Flames at St. John the
Baptist's tide. (June 24)
When the bramble blossoms
early in June, an early harvest is expected.
6/11 On St. Barnabas’ day, it is time
to cut your hay.
6/15 Sow cabbage on St. Vitus’ day.
6/17 Sow your Swedes today.
6/24 The best hay is
made before midsummer
St. John’s Day is
considered a good time for sowing, and when the sun shines on his day, nuts
will be abundant during the coming year [this
being an election year, an abundance of nuts is a sure bet.]
Cut your thistles
before St. John, you will have two instead of one [so leave those thistles standing another day]
Up to St. John’s day,
wine is fit only for peasants. [in other
words, the wine of last year’s vintage is not good until after Midsummer. Fine. Along with the thistles, leave last year’s vintage alone for
another day. Or be a peasant with
me.]
Cassell’s
Illustrated almanac 1871 for June:
Flowers.— Propagate verbenas, heliotropes, etc., by cutting. A few annuals, such as Clarkia and
Virginia stock may still be sown. Others should be thinned out from the border
and potted for window-plants. Take up choice bulbs as soon as the foliage dies
down. Tie up carnations, &c, and look after aphides, which may be kept
under by dusting a little Scotch snuff upon them. The budding of roses may be
performed towards the end of the month. The operation is not attended with much
difficulty. A strong shoot should be selected for the bud, and a slit like the
letter T should be made in the bark. Then take a full-grown bud, paring it off
by a sharp knife, with a piece of the wood attached. Trim this carefully, and insert the base of the bud in the
top of the T-shaped slit, raising the bark a little at the sides to receive it.
When the bud is inserted, close the bark down again, and bind over the whole
with bast to exclude the air; sometimes a coating of clay is used for this
purpose.
Vegetables.— Gather herbs for drying, and remove all kinds of decaying crops.
Make your last sowing of beans and peas early in the month.
Plant out your young
cabbage, &c., and make a good sowing of turnips, sprinkling young plants,
when they come up, with soot or lime.
Fruit.
– Still look over vines, and cut away weak and useless growths. Keep
strawberries well watered in very dry weather. Protect cherry trees, etc., from
the ravages of black-fly, by dipping the points infested by it in a mixture of
clayey soil and water, which will quickly dry in the sun, and may be washed off
when the insects have perished.
From the 1817 Almanac:
Sow Broccoli the Beginning
of this Month, for a second Crop.
Transplant Celery for Blanching.
Transplant Savoy and Cabbage Plants for Winter Use. Sow Kidney-Beans and brown Dutch
Cabbage Lettuce for a late Crop.
Gather such Herbs for drying
as are now in Flower, and let them dry leisurely in a shady Place, and not in
the Sun. Sow all Sorts of small
Sallad Herbs every three or four Days.
Keep your Garden free from all Sorts of Weeds, for they spoil whatever
Plants they are near. Weed your
corn, and sow Rape, cole-seed, and Turnip-seed.
Health for June:
Cooling Sallads, as Lettuce,
Sorrel, Purslane, &c. will prevent too great a Perspiration, and throw off
feverish Disorders.
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Artwork
June.
Limbourg frères. Grandes Heures of Jean,
Duc de Berry, Fifteenth century.
The calendar pages of the Grandes Heures carried more religious
symbolism than that of the more famous Très
Riches Heures. Each month was dedicated to a part of
the Apostles Creed, with the relevant prophecy from the Old Testament and
scripture from the New Testament.
June is dedicated to the article of the Creed which says “…He ascended
into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty…” Here
we see (left to right) Saint Paul instructing the Phillipians (although the
scripture “…He [that descended is the
same also that] ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all
things…” comes from Ephesians 4:10); Our Lady stands above the battlements of
the New Jerusalem, holding a banner with a depiction of Our Lord’s resurrection
[yes, that belonged to last month, but
the artists weren’t too accurate here, as we’ve seen]; Cancer, the Crab,
astrological symbol of June, emerges from the gate; the sun has moved higher in
the arc of heaven; and below it are flowering trees in a green meadow.
José de Páez, c1770, Sacred Heart of Jesus with St. Ignatius of
Loyola and Saint Louis Gonzaga. Swiped from Wikipedia.
June.
Limbourg frères. Grandes Heures of Jean,
Duc de Berry, Fifteenth century.
Depicted at the bottom of
the calendar pages in the Grandes Heures
is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament by the
articles of the Apostles Creed. In
each, a prophet (cloaked to show the obscurity of prophecy) takes a stone out
of the building representing the Old Law and offers it to an apostle, who, by
raising the cloak ‘uncovers’ the prophecy with an article of faith. The Prophet
Amos holds a banderole which translates to “…He that builds his ascension in
heaven…” (Amos 9:6), while the brick he pulls from the edifice has caused the
buttress and tower to crumble and the columns holding the loggia roof to
buckle; Saint James Minor presents the relevant part of the Apostle’s Creed, “…He
ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father Almighty…”
June – Cutting Wood. Engraving based on an 11th century manuscript. William
Walsh, Curiosities of Popular Customs
(1898) p. 591
