Les Saints de glace

First, I have some unfinished business from yesterday's post.  The winner of the Prix du Jury for garden design in the competition featuring designs by young landscape gardeners at our recent village garden festival was this one:

I caveat that I am no landscape professional in any sense of the word.  While I personally enjoyed every one of the designs, and each in a different way, the one that received my vote for the Prix du Public was this design:

I haven't yet been able to find a source that reports the final result of the public voting, so I don't yet know which design was finally awarded the Prix du Public.  I don't envy the members of the official Jury.  At all.

*****

Today, tomorrow and Thursday, 11, 12 and 13 May are the former feast days of St. Mamertus, St. Pancras, and St. Servatius (in some regions or countries, replaced by St. Boniface), all known as the "Saints de glace" ("Ice Saints") in, among others, French and Swiss folklore.  They were given this collective nickname because, under the Julian Calendar, the period from 12-15 May was often susceptible to cooler weather in Europe.  Under the Gregorian Calendar, which is most commonly used today, the period of cooler weather actually falls around 19-22 May.  But the Ice Saints still didn't lose their nickname.  Indeed, their names continue to form the basis for several weather-related sayings in French.  Although the rhyme of the originals is lost in my translations so that the sayings don't have quite the same zing, I have posted a few below.  Saint Servatius (Saint-Servais) seems to feature in more sayings.  It does not appear that it is because he is more popular.  It's just easier to find rhymes in French that go with the sound of his name.

« Saints Pancrace, Servais et Boniface apportent souvent la glace. »  ("Saints Pancras, Servatius and Boniface often bring ice.")

« Saint Servais, saint Pancrace et saint Mamert font à trois un petit hiver. »  ("Saint Servatius, Saint Pancras and Saint Mamertus all three make a little winter.")

« Avant Saint-Servais : point d'été, après Saint-Servais : plus de gelée. »  ("Before Saint Servatius day, there's no summer, after Saint Servatius day, there's no freezing weather.")

« Quand il pleut à la Saint-Servais, pour le blé, signe mauvais. »  ("When it rains on Saint Servatius day, it's a bad sign for the wheat crop.")

Although these saints have a strong hold on the imaginations of farmers and those who cultivate the grapes even today, they were "demoted" by the Vatican in the 1960s.  Their traditional feast days were summarily taken away from them.  The three were "replaced" respectively by Saints Estelle, Achille (Achilles) and Rolande.  The latter three were apparently more religiously acceptable because they were not associated with a tradition that, according to the Church, had its origins in pagan traditions and beliefs.  Fittingly, however, it is the tradition that lives on today.