Well would you look what the cats just drug in .... Looks like the dog days of summer have just arrived!
I got curious enough to Wikipedia the event to figure out exactly what’s up with these so called “dog days”. Here’s the cliff notes...
It’s mostly about the star, Sirius (Orions’ dog), and it typically happens in mid-July to late August in our part of the world.
For the Egyptians, it was a happy thing. The rising of Sirius was used as kind of a weather indicator for the upcoming year. Since the rising of Sirius coincided with the hot sultry days of summer, the Egyptians coined the saying ... “Dog Days bright and clear indicate a happy year, but when accompanied by rain, for better times our hopes are vain".
The Romans also believed Sirius to be something of weather indicator, but they blamed the dog star for the hot sultry weather and took a more aggressive approach to appeasing the rage of Sirius. They sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of Dog Days.
Yikes!!!
To bring it a little closer to home, I interviewed Duncan and his friend Tim(ber), to see what modern Dog Days means. It seems to them that it signifies a time lie around the shop parked in front of a nice cool fan, have picnic lunches with friends and stay away from the Romans for a good long spell - or at least until the temperature drops.
If you agree with their approach - I have lots of fun furniture to lounge away the days on, I have a couple of cute vintage picnic baskets to pack up and take to the park, and my shop is a safe haven from the bad guys!
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