Ruling Days/ Kingdomtide

Ruling Days is the traditional idea that the twelve days of Christmas are predictors for the twelve months coming up in the new year. According to Google, this time is also called Kingdomtide, although I have never heard it called that around here.

The first day of Christmas here was sunny but cold, which will probably be what we get in January. Today has started the same way, too cold for me, but it could very well be what our February will be like.

It has been more than half a century, but I can clearly remember my Grandma Gean standing in front of her big wall calendar, the one that Rexall Drug Store gave her for free, and recording the weather conditions for each day during the twelve days of Christmas. I can remember her referring back to it: "Well, June is supposed to be extra rainy, according to the Ruling Days."

I wish Grandma was here to scoff at our weather satellites and the latest digital radar. Her ruling days predictions worked for her, and I cannot say our modern weather reporting technology works any better.

In the meantime, I am really looking forward to a couple of summer days next week.

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Amish in Stantonville, Tennessee

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Faith, Folklore, and Friends

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