The Dog Days are upon us. Normally, the weather is at its hottest at this time of year. In the north of France and England, the wet weather seems to be set in for July and perhaps August too. I will have something of a respite from it by going to the La Rochelle area with my wife and boat for holidays in the first three weeks of August. The climate down there on the Atlantic seaboard seems to be a lot better – at least we hope so. Sophie will be going to the spa of Rochefort, as this will help for certain health issues, and I will inevitably be doing a lot of sailing. There are many fine Romanesque churches in the area, and many museums of maritime history.

In the calendar of the Book of Common Prayer, we find mention of the Dog Days, beginning on 6th July and ending on 17th August. I would suppose this reckoning would be according to the Julian Calendar, as England did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar until 1752. This was, with the Sundays after Trinity and other features, imported from the Use of Sarum.

Depending on whether you live in Europe, and if so, where in Europe, you will during this period live through the hot and sultry days of summer when life seems to stop and our vital energy dissipates to total lassitude as we lie on a sun-drenched beach or desperately try to find some way of cooling ourselves down at home. Here in France, we talk of La Canicule from the Latin dies caniculares, making the noun dog into an adjective. All that is something of a joke this year!

Dog days also define a time when little or nothing is happening, when business is slow, when people wait for things to happen.

As with many aspects of the Christian calendar, the Dog Days, as something to be marked and commemorated, are pagan in origin. In ancient Rome, they extended from July 24^th until August 24^th. In the civil life of Germany, France, Italy and some other countries, the Dog Days are still reckoned to be between these dates. The Old Farmer’s Almanac still more or less sticks to these old dates.

Charles Dickens made a mention of the Dog Days in A Christmas Carol:

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.

In spite of this summer hiatus, it is understandable that religious organisations are keeping information away from the blogs and the Internet. Everything is going so well everywhere, so well that there is a sickening feeling among many of us that sinister things loom beneath the surface. That is human nature. Usually, when nothing seems to be going on, nothing is going on. What is suspect is that a matter causing a considerable amount of polemics is suddenly hushed up – and “all is going well”. Nothing to report – move on.

If readers know about events and developments and they are not being reported, simply because people can’t be bothered, let me know. A movement of air here and there is appreciated.