Indian Summer

This is an Indian summer, right. But do you know how to say it in Spanish? I’d forgotten. So I checked it out, and in fact there are various ‘veranillos’. This one in November is called el veranillo de San Martín and l’estiuet de Sant Martí in Catalan. Why? And in particular, you might be wondering, as I was, whether there’s a connection with the Catalan for rainbow - l’arc de Sant Martí.

I love research, so here goes. San Martín’s day is 11 November, and every year there is good warm weather around this date - this was so long before we all started fretting about climate change. Antes de san Martín, pan y vino; después del veranillo, hambre y frío, goes the old adage. Before San Martín, bread and wine. After, hunger and cold. Other sayings refer to wind, snow, and the onset of winter in general.

Anyway, the legend goes that one snowy day San Martín came across a poor man shivering with cold, and gave him half of his cloak. At that very moment, a rainbow appeared in the sky, the snow stopped, and the temperature went up.

That happened way back in the 4th century, in the latter years of the Roman empire. St Martin of Tours was born in Hungary in 316 and was raised in Italy. As a young man, he served in the Imperial Roman army. One freezing day, the troops marched into Amiens, where Martin saw a naked man begging for alms.  He had no money on him, so he drew his sword, slashed his cloak in two, and gave one half to the beggar.  In this version, his fellow soldiers made fun of him. But that night, in his dreams Martin saw Jesus dressed in that very piece of cloak.  Martin was later ordained and eventually became Bishop of Tours. He died in 397, his fame having spread far and wide.

I think he’s a pretty good example to follow. Don’t you?

Valerie Collins is co-author of the popular book In The Garlic: Your Informative, Fun Guide to Spain