15 July - St. Swithin's Day in the UK

St. Swithin's Day is 15 July, a day on which people watch the weather for tradition says that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin's Day, it will continue so for the next forty days.

There is a weather-rhyme is well known throughout the British Isles since Elizabethan times. 

'St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain 

For forty days it will remain 

St. Swithin's day if thou be fair 

For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.'

dost = does

thou = you

nae mair = no more.

Who was St. Swithin?

St. Swithin (or more properly, Swithun) was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester. He was born in the kingdom of Wessex and educated in its capital, Winchester. He was famous for charitable gifts and building churches.

Why do people watch the weather on St. Swithin's day?

A legend says that as the Bishop lay on his deathbed, he asked to be buried out of doors, where he would be trodden on and rained on. For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then, the monks of Winchester attempted to remove his remains to a splendid shrine inside the cathedral on 15 July 971. According to legend there was a heavy rain storm either during the ceremony or on its anniversary.

This led to the old wives' tale (folklore) that if it rains on St Swithin's Day (July 15th), it will rain for the next 40 days in succession, and a fine 15th July will be followed by 40 days of fine weather.

However, according to the Met Office, this old wives' tale is nothing other than a myth. It has been put to the test on 55 occasions*, when it has been wet on St Swithin's Day and 40 days of rain did not follow.

What symbols are associated with St. Swithins?

The emblems of St. Swithin refer to the legend of the forty days' rain (raindrops) and the apples from the trees he planted.

Apples and St. Swithuns

"St Swithin is christening the apples"

Brand, Popular Antiquities, 1813, i, 342

There is an old saying when it rains on St. Swithin's Day, it is the Saint christening the apples.

Apple growers ask St. Swithin for his blessing each year because they believe: 

• Rain on St. Swithin's day 'blesses and christens the apples'.
• No apple should picked or eaten before July 15th.
• Apples still growing at St Swithin's day will ripen fully.