Reply #11: It is S. Swithin's Day

[tjwmason]

S. Swithin was a well-known and much admired Bishop of Winchester who died 2 July, 862; he requested to be buried where the sweet rain could fall on his grave (i.e., in the churchyard). By 971 he was a very popular saint, and so the authorities decided to move his body into a large shrine within the Cathedral. He was mightily peeved by this and made it rain for 40 days. The day on which they moved his body (15 July) became the Feast of the Translation of S. Swithin (several saints have feasts on the date where their relics were moved).

Legend has it that if it rains on S. Swithin's day, it will rain for the following 40 days (apparently he still has not completely got over it); this was pretty true this year and we had a crap summer as a result. Apparently there is some truth in the legend, in that if it is raining on 15th July the position of a depression over the Atlantic will give us bad weather.

The Battle of Agincourt was on S. Crispin's Day (it is actually the Feast of Ss. Crispin and Crispinian). This is actually one of the very few historical points which Shakespeare got right - e.g. Macbeth was actually a rather good King of Scots.