Pissing Sophie and other czech lessons

Today is sunday and, as everyone expected, its raining rather vigorously. I knew it would rain today, not beause weather.com told me so but because of the czech legend of the three frozen men and pissing sophie (or, as she is called in czech, Zofie).

To back up for a moment, for our non-czech readers, the czechs have a long tradition of name days. Each and every czech name, from Aneta to Zbysek (and yes, that last one is a real name. it should have a hacek over the s though) has a special day ascribed to it on the calendar.

The weather here is fairly changeable in spring, but the czechs have a traditional way of gauging when the weather will make a definitive turn for the better. This is where the legend comes in. In early may, the weather is subject to sudden changes, and a freak cold spell is not unheard of. Thus Pankrac, Sverac and Bonifac (otherwise known as May 12, 13 &14) are often refered to as the "three frozen men", either because it is often cold on those days or beause these names are so odd and oldfashioned that not even czechs will use them anymore.

Today, may 15th, belongs to Zofie, alias Sophie. Because it almost always rains on her day (this year being no exception), she has picked up the rather unfortunate but amusing nickname mentioned above.

Tomorrow should hopefully be, er, dryer. =)