{"id":3694,"date":"2023-07-03T14:03:07","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T14:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=3694"},"modified":"2023-07-03T14:03:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T14:03:08","slug":"dog-days-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=3694","title":{"rendered":"Dog Days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today is kind of a special day \u2014 it\u2019s the official<\/em> beginning of the Dog Days of Summer. A lot of us have heard this expression most of our lives and it traditionally refers to a period of particularly hot and humid weather occurring during the summer months of July and August.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But which days are really the \u201cdog days,\u201d and why are they called dog days? Well this is another one of those subjects that just begged for some of my extensive research \u2014 here\u2019s what I found\u2026.
So why are they referred to as dog days? Some think it\u2019s a reference to the hot, sultry days that are \u201cnot fit for a dog,\u201d and some believe it\u2019s the time of year when the extreme heat drives dogs mad. Of course, that\u2019s not true\u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phrase actually comes from the stars \u2014 specifically, Sirius, the Dog Star. During the \u201cdog days\u201d period, the Sun occupies the same region of the sky as Sirius, the brightest star visible from any part of the Earth. Sirius is a part of the constellation Canis Major, the Greater Dog. In the summer, Sirius rises and sets with the Sun. And on July 23rd, it is in conjunction with the Sun \u2014 because the star is so bright, the ancient Romans believed it actually gave off heat and added to the Sun\u2019s warmth and that\u2019s what accounted for the long stretch of sultry weather. The Romans referred to this time as di\u0113s canicul\u00e3r\u0113s, or \u201cdog days.\u201d The term came to mean the 20 days before and 20 days after the alignment of Sirius with the Sun \u2014 July 3 to August 11 each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, the appearance of Sirius doesn\u2019t affect the weather here on Earth, but its appearance during the hottest part of summer over time has added to the lore surrounding the star \u2014 even today.\u00a0
For us today, when Sirius makes its appearance, it just mean\u2019s it\u2019s probably going to be hot and sultry. But to the ancient Greeks and Romans, Sirius\u2019s appearance signaled a time when evil was brought to their lands in the form of drought, disease, or discomfort.
Virgil, the Roman poet, wrote, \u201c\u2026fiery Sirius, bringer of drought and plague to frail mortals, rises and saddens the sky with sinister light.\u201d Obviously, this is a superstition, but in 2009 a Finnish study was conducted to determine if the claim that the rate of infections was higher during the Dog Days had any merit. Here\u2019s what the report concluded \u2014 \u201cThe study was conducted in order to challenge the myth that the rate of infections is higher during the dog days. To our surprise, the myth was found to be true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So make of that what you want \u2014 maybe the Canadian wildfires aren\u2019t the only thing we should be concerned about this summer.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is kind of a special day \u2014 it\u2019s the official beginning of the Dog Days of Summer. A lot of us have heard this expression most of our lives and it traditionally refers to a period of particularly hot … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3695,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694\/revisions\/3695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}