Holiday weather

Has it ever occurred to you how closely we associate specific holidays with certain weather? "White Christmas" is the most prominent example - the concept, not the song, though the latter certainly reinforces the general idea. "May all your Christmases be white" - to whom does that actually apply?

Well, it leaves out all the millions of people who live in the southern hemisphere, for a start. The only way Australians can have a white Christmas is if they choose a beach with white sand for their holiday picnic! But even in the northern hemisphere, and not only in the temperate zones, snowfall at Christmas is frequently more the exception than the rule. That's certainly the case here in Germany, except for those few areas that are located in a higher altitude with more constant cold temperatures.

Now why on earth am I writing about this topic at the end of April, you may wonder? Bear with me, I'm getting there.

The next holiday on the calendar that I associate with a particular weather condition is Good Friday. It is one of the few holidays on which I don't mind rain and clouds - somehow, it seems appropriate. It's a quiet kind of day, so no one really cares if it's spent indoors.

Easter is a different story - we want sunshine and dry weather for hiding and finding eggs outside, don't we?! We don't always get it, but it's an ideal we hope for.

Next holiday (this one secular, and it may not be a holiday in your country) is May 1st. It's the International Day of Labour, a very important day in Communist countries but also for Socialist politicians and union organizations. Not that most people here celebrate it with that in mind - it's a day for outings and picnics, weather permitting. The beer gardens are open all day long, the streets and paths are crowded with bicycles and walkers, and everyone enjoys a work-free day for revelling in springtime. Alas, this year's weather forecast is daunting; even now, two days before the holiday, it's raining intermittently, there's a chilly wind blowing, and it looks more like getting worse than better.

Ascension Day, later in May, is a holiday here that has two faces - a church holy-day that has been taken as Father's Day as well. Not that the traditional way for the fathers to spend the day is with their families - they get together, go out into nature somewhere and drink all day long! Can you imagine what would be said if the mothers took Mother's Day off and went out carousing with their friends?!

Pentecost is one of the big two-day holidays here in Germany, but in this secularized society, few people remember the reason for it. It's just a conveniently longer weekend for short vacations, and as such, being at the end of May or early in June, warm and sunny weather is expected - and the chances are not too bad, though without guarantee.

The one holiday that we have which involves a national identity is the Day of German Unity on October 3rd. That has no particular weather association that I know of - most official celebrations are indoors, so it doesn't really matter. Good thing, as the weather in autumn is unpredictable.

A few more Catholic holidays are scattered throughout the year, but as I'm Protestant, they're just a day off to me and not associated with weather conditions. I am aware of processions that take place then, so I'm sure Catholics would have preferences there.

There's one American holiday that I associate with hot sunny weather - Independence Day, on the 4th of July! Picnics, parades, and fireworks demand that kind of summer day (though I remember sweating in marching band uniform back in high school!), and in the continental Midwest US summer, the chances are good.

I also have fond memories of Mayday, though it wasn't a holiday over there - do people still give each other the little baskets of flowers and/or sweets on that day?