Folk Lore
Home St. Leonard's The Rector writes .. Church Music Weddings Synod Who's Who Mothers Union What's On In Clent Views of Clent Folk Lore Gardening Tips Farming Affairs Parish Hall Links

 

 

JANUARY

"January is here, with eyes that keenly glow,
A frost-mailed warrior striding a shadowy steed of snow."
-   Edgar Fawcett
"Here's to thee, old apple tree
Whence thou mayest bud
Whence thou mayest blow
Whence thou mayest bear apples enow."
-  Wassailing Songs, England, 
January 5th		 "It snowed and snowed, the whole world over,
Snow swept the world from end to end.
A candle burned on the table;
A candle burned."
-   Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago		 "Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne."
-   Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne

"The shortest day has passed, and whatever nastiness of weather we may look forward to in January and February, at least we notice that the days are getting longer.  Minute by minute they lengthen out.  It takes some weeks before we become aware of the change.  It is imperceptible even as the growth of a child, as you watch it day by day, until the moment comes when with a start of delighted surprise we realize that we can stay out of doors in a twilight lasting for another quarter of a precious hour."
-   Vita Sackville-West
"Little January
Tapped at my door today.
And said, "Put on your winter wraps,
And come outdoors to play."
Little January
Is always full of fun;
Until the set of sun.
Little January
Will stay a month with me
And we will have such jolly times -
Just come along and see."
-   Winifred C. Marshall, January		 "To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June."
-  Jean-Paul Sartre		 "January is named after the Roman god Janus, who was always shown as having two heads.  
He looked back to the last year and forward to the new one.  
The Roman New Year festival was called the Calends, and people decorated their homes and gave each other gifts."

"January is the quietest month in the garden.  ...  But just because it looks quiet doesn't mean that nothing is happening.  The soil, open to the sky, absorbs the pure rainfall while microorganisms convert tilled-under fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants.  The feasting earthworms tunnel along, aerating the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come."
-  Rosalie Muller Wright, Editor of Sunset Magazine,
"The trees down the boulevard stand naked in thought,
Their abundant summery wordage silenced, caught
In the grim undertow; naked the trees confront
Implacable winter's long, cross-questioning brunt."
-  D. H. Lawrence, 
Winter in the Boulevard, 
1916

"You'd be so lean, that blast of January
Would blow you through and through.  Now, my fair'st friend,
I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might
Become your time of day."
-   William Shakespeare, 
The Winter's Tale, 
Act IV Scene 4.

"New Year ceremonies are designed to get rid of the past and to welcome the future. 

January is named after the Etruscan word janua which means door."
"In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1st to be the beginning of the new year. 
During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Year's Day. 
January 1st has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years."
 

"The twelve months...
Snowy, Flowy, Blowy,
Showery, Flowery, Bowery,
Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy,
Breezey, Sneezy, Freezy."
-   George Ellis

"Whenever two Englishmen meet, ...  their first talk is of the weather !"

 Samuel Johnson
"Folk Lore ~ Oooo, Ahhhh !"

Village Idiot