The Dog Days Revisited

 

THE DOG DAYS REVISITED: 

( A reader wrote to me after my last newsletter and reminded me that I had mentioned the Perseids meteor showers a few years ago in a newsletter that focused on the so-called “Dog Days” of July and August.  I went back, found that, and thought it might be good to look again at the origin and meaning of the phrase, “Dog Days.”  So, here it is, heavily edited). 

 THE DOG DAYS FROM HOME  

   The weather has been a big part of our lives for the past month or so. There were most notably the downpours, thunderstorms, and possible tornadoes in some of July and earlier this week. Power was knocked out, roads and basements were flooded, and trees were felled throughout the region. Those events were preceded by intense heat and humidity for much of July. It was in fact, the hottest July, and indeed, the hottest of any month ever recorded. That meant that we spent a lot of time over the last month under umbrellas, inside, in front of fans, in air-conditioned environments, and/or trying to grab a little shade and a stray breeze on our porches or in our backyards.  This can often be a time of two-three showers a day. The “Dog Days” of summer are here, and they have announced their presence in very dramatic fashion. 

    The Dog Days are traditionally cited as falling between July 3 and August 17th.  The Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the US often experience this as a time of intense heat, high humidity, torrential downpours, thunderstorms and windstorms. When I was young, I thought this time was called the “Dog Days’ because so often dogs would be seen on the streets with their tongues hanging out and panting, as if struggling to breathe. I shared this with friends, and they said, “No; it is because dogs are driven mad by the heat in this weather, and they go around biting and attacking you.” I did not grow up in a house that had a dog, so this made me a little wary and afraid of dogs for a good long while. I did not want to be seen as a potential meal for a canine. 

  Of course, neither of those stories are true. “The Dog Days” refer to the period of time when there is the visible appearance of a certain super-bright star in the morning sky. That star is called, Sirius”-the “dog star,” and the time of its sunrise appearance was first noted and recorded by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. They noted that when that star appeared, the Nile River would begin its period of flooding, and that was vital information. The Egyptians needed to know that, for their agricultural output and entire economy depended on the regular flooding of the Nile. The height and length of time of the flood season was the key to knowing when to plant crops and when to trade items up and down the Nile. Knowing that was key to Egypt’s success as a civilization. If they got the timing wrong or if the Nile did not flood as expected, it meant times if struggle and famine for Egypt. Sirius was literally a watchdog for that event, and it loomed large in Egyptian science and religion.  

Greece and Rome got a lot of their celestial knowledge from the Egyptians, and they eventually put Sirius into a constellation-Canus Majoris or Great Dog. The name of the constellation shows how important the star’s arrival was to them. And like so much of Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures, that knowledge made its way to us. And we recognize the importance of this time period by calling it The Dog Days. 

   I am thinking about this now because once again I am spending all of the Dog Days at home in Philadelphia. August 8th is my wedding anniversary, and right after our wedding, 40 years ago, my bride Penny and I headed north on a wonderful 2 ½ week camping honeymoon to Maine and Nova Scotia. And just about every year since then we spent the Dog Days of August in the Northlands, usually camping. We spend time in upstate New York, New England, and/or Canada, and we got to see wondrous places and wondrous sites. We saw numerous heron and egret roosting in the evenings as the birds returned from eating to spend the night. We experienced lovely lakes and waterfalls, The Thousand Islands of New York State, the beautiful campgrounds at Ivy Lea Provincial Park in Ontario, and the exciting Limestone City Blues Festival in the great city of Kingston, Ontario. Watching sunrises and/or sunsets from a camp site or small mountain or a lakeside can be literally breathtaking. And we also regularly got to see the Perseid meteor showers, which are absolutely phenomenal when seen away from city lights. Those times were magical; they were times when we were able to truly have a “vacation”: to “vacate” and leave our regular lives behind.  

   And it will be magical again to watch the Perseid showers this Saturday and Sunday night, whether from my backyard or standing on Bryan Street. And it will be calming and soothing and wondrous as I go walking early the next morning and see the sunrise over Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. These are all special and quietly awesome things to witness. They are all part of the gifts that can come from looking up. A part of me always misses being up North at this time of the year. That had become so special to me, and I get a little sad about not doing it. But I am also very grateful to have had years of venturing northward and experiencing the wonders of looking up into a brighter and clearer sky with my all-time favorite traveling companion. Finding out about that little Egyptian dog star when I was in high school was a game-changer for me; it was one of the things that started me looking up. That little action now plays an important part in how I live my life, and it regularly brings me joy and wonder. I hope you all can find and feel such joy by simply looking up, especially this weekend at the Perseids.