“Farmer’s Almanac” Rules – Bauernregeln

The dates for the Ice Saints tradition in Germany are determined by the religious calendar and the feast days of the saints. Known as die Eisheiligen in German, the Ice Saints are not a true holiday or even a feast day, but more of a traditional farmer’s or gardener’s weather and planting guide (Bauernregel). There are also various sayings related to the tradition, which we will discuss below. The Ice Saints are regional, with some of them ranked differently, or even left out entirely in different countries or regions. The Ice Saints tradition is known and observed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, northern Italy, Czechia, Slovenia, Poland, and a few other places in Europe.

Ice crystals on a thistle (Distel) in Hausdülmen, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. PHOTO: Dietmar Rabich (Wikimedia Commons) / CC BY-SA 4.0

If you have spent any time at all in German-speaking Europe or other parts of Central Europe during the spring, you know how fickle the weather can be in May. One day the sun is shining and it’s shirtsleeve weather. The next day it turns cold and the nights are below freezing. The Ice Saints tradition is a way that people found to help avoid crop failure and ruined flowers. The dates for the Ice Saints range from three to five days in May, either from the 11th to the 15th (five days) or the 11th to the 13th of May (three days), depending on the region. But that statement makes the whole thing sound like it’s an exact science, which it is not. The validity of the Ice Saints predictions is highly questionable, but then the groundhog doesn’t do much better. So who are these guys?

Who Are the Ice Saints?
One of them is a woman. All of them are saints (or a former saint) in the Roman Catholic Church. A few are martyrs who suffered early, unpleasant deaths. The feast days (dates) reflect the old Julian calendar. (More about that below.)

• Mamertus (5th c.) Archbishop of Vienne in Gaul, 11 May
• Pankratius/Pancras (3rd/4th c.) Pancras of Rome, martyr, 12 May
• Servatius (4th c.) Servatius of Tongeren, 13 May
• Bonifatius/Boniface of Tarsus* (3rd/4th c.) martyr, 14 May
• Sophie/Sophia of Rome (3rd/4th c.) “Kalte Sophie/Cold Sophia,” martyr, 15 May
• *Due to a lack of any evidence of his existence, in 1969 Boniface of Tarsus (not to be confused with several other Bonifaces) was removed from the General Roman Calendar both as a saint and a martyr. But he is still considered one of the Ice Saints.

My personal favorite of the five is Cold Sophia or Cold Sophie (Kalte Sophie) for several reasons. She’s the Ice Saint who arrives last (on 15 May) and brings in a mass of bitter-cold air from the north in mid-May – or later. (Pflanze nie vor der Kalten Sophie. = Never plant before Cold Sophie.) Ice Saint folklore in some places does not include Cold Sophie or St. Mamertus. For instance in Southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland St. Pancras is ranked first, replacing St. Mamertus, who is, however, included in Northern Germany. St. Sophia is added in Germany, Alsace (France/Germany), and Poland. As we said, this is all very regional. How it is practiced, and with which Ice Saints, all depends on the local folklore and traditions.

The same goes for the sayings attached to this custom. Up until the 19th century, the German names for the Ice Saints were Pankraz (now Pankratius; famous as a rail terminal in London: St. Pancras), Servaz (Servatius), and Bonifaz (Bonifatius). These older names are still seen in the related Bauernregel sayings, as in…

Servaz muss vorüber sein,
will man vor Nachtfrost sicher sein.
Literal translation:
[The date of] Servaz must be past,
if one wants to be safe from night frost (freezing).

Pankraz und Servaz sind zwei böse Brüder,
was der Frühling gebracht, zerstören sie wieder.
Literal translation:
Pankraz and Servaz are two evil/mean brothers,
what spring brought, they destroy again.

Sculpture of St. Sophia (“Cold Sophie”) with three daughters (1470), inside the St. Trophime Church of Eschau, Alsace, Lower Rhine. She is also depicted on a column in the nave of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. PHOTO: Ralph Hammann (Wikimedia Commons)

The Julian and Gregorian Calendars
The feast days for the Ice Saints, as listed above, are based on the Julian calendar. Pope Gregory XIII’s calendar reform in 1582 resynchronized the calendar by replacing the Julian with a new one so it would better reflect the astronomical/solar year. (The Bavarian mathematician Christopher Clavius was the chief architect of the Gregorian calendar, working for the Vatican.) The new calendar was at first adopted only in Catholic regions (in Germany and most of Austria by 1585). Many Protestant nations initially objected to adopting a Catholic innovation. Germany’s Protestant (Lutheran) regions waited until 1700. The British colonies, in what later became the United States, waited until 1752.

Let’s take Cold Sophie as a calendar example. As the last of the Ice Saints, she and her often cold temperatures arrive on 15 May, her feast day. But that is the Julian calendar date. Adjusting for today’s Gregorian calendar, we have to add 13 days, putting her day around the 28th of May. However, various researchers have done meteorological studies related to the Ice Saints. The results are pretty much what you might expect. The Ice Saints are not very reliable weather predictors, even adjusted for the calendar changes. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the Ice Saints tradition.

More | Holidays and Celebrations

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AT THE GERMAN WAY

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