The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1915-02-02
TopAYl5WE CELEBRATE.
10 3Klna Winters eack. Broker,


Although Candlemas Day. the sec
ond of February, has lost much of It's
old significance as religious festi.i
val. and is now far from generally OBJ.
served even in the Catholic countries
Of Europe, the ancient weather super
|stitutions connected with it are still
very much alive, Toiaimajority of the
Iinhabitantsso of North America the once
Ihonored festival or the Publication Of
the Virgin has become merely
IIs.''Groundhog Day. On this day the
grounding, according to time:honored
custom, energies from his hole to in
spect the state OF the weather. . G
the sun shines ut any time during the
day with such brightness that Brer
Grounding can see his shadow, he
will know that six, weeks of winter!
lstill remain, and will resume his in
Iterruped 5slumbers. 4. !
The belief that Candlemas Day in
1fluences the duration OF winter! IDS yas
| old Us the festival itself. 1t lis OK:
pressed in tile old Scottish rhyme:
i II Candlemoss Day be dry and fair,
The half!o' winters to come and
MAR;
IL Candlemass Day be wet and foul.
The half O. winters game at Yule.
In these days OF meteorological re-
cords and scientific observations, the
grounding has been proved q liar so
often that he is wholly discredited.
And with the old superstition 1t would
seem that winter itselfiis passing. The
seyerest Of modern winters cannot
compare with the "old.fashioned win
tersr that our grandfathers talk about,
land they were mild in comparison
with the winters OF ancient rlines.
King Winters back has been broken,
i 1t would seem, and even in the west.
ern states and Canadian provinces the
raging blizzard has become compare
lively tame.
Looking over the records Of the
'hard winters of the past, we find
that the Black sea was frozen over for
twenty days in 402; that the seas at
iConstantinople. were frozen q hundred
miles from shore in 764; that the sAd-
riatic was frozen over. in $50; that the
Thames was = frozen for fourteen
weeks in 1903; that travellers passed
lover the Baltic on the ice for six years
lin 1923, and that 1t was frozen again
i'm 1402 and 1460, when horse passen.
gers crossed from Denmark to Swe-
5tdetl; that wine was sold in frozen
chunks in Flanders in 1874: that the
sea at Venice was frozen In 1904 that
lice covered the Hellespont in 1622;
that Charles x. OF Sweden crossed
with his whole army over the ice from
Holstein to Denmark: that forest
ltrees were split by the frost in Eng
Hand in 1854, and the ice on the
Thames was so thick that shops were
ibuilt on 1T; that Austria was almost
submerged by snow in 1891, when the
wolves became so sfamished that they
entered Vienna and attacked people
land animals; that an ice festival last
ling nine weeks was held on the
Thames at London in 1740; that New
York harbor, was frozen over, and
teams passed from the city to- Staten
Island; in 1880; that New York bay
Twas again frozen in 1921, aud that
Iearly explorers IN the tDakotas Mani
Itoba and the northwest declared that
1.-The winters were soiseyere and SO cold
lso terrible that only the sturdiest OF
men could survive, and that. the coun:
TRY was absolutely uninhabitable for
dordinary white folks. <, E.
A p The hard winter of the twentieth
century would doubtless have been
considered except mild and
benign by our fcestors. II civili2a-
dtion reduces the physical stamina and
lendurancel of humans, 4 1t also seems TO
to thay the effect Of tempering the
Irigors of winter.