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According to tradition, saint’s harvest celebration heralds the coming of cooler weather and a prosperous autumn
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News — David Hambling
St Bartholomew’s Day was on 24 August, 40 days after St Swithin’s Day. An old saying has it that “St Bartlemy’s mantle wipes dry / All the tears that St Swithin can cry”, at the end of a wet spell.
Bartholomew was a disciple , notable for being skinned during his martyrdom. His day heralded the coming of cooler weather: “At St Bartholomew / There comes cold dew.”
Like St Swithin, his day also supposedly signals the weather ahead, as in the 1670 couplet: “If St Bartholomew’s Day be fair and clear / Then a prosperous autumn comes that year.”
This day was the occasion for great harvest fairs and celebrations, so that any riotous, chaotic scene was described as “like Bartholomew Fair”. Some of these celebrations may pre-date the saint’s arrival in England, with pagan rites surviving in disguised form.
In the village of West Witton in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, the day is marked by the Burning of the Bartle. An effigy, supposedly representing a sheep stealer called “Old Bartle”, is paraded through the village before being burned . This ritual burning of a scapegoat on a specific day looks like a pagan rite to mark the change of seasons.
Thankfully though, actual human sacrifice is no longer demanded on St Bartholomew’s Day to ensure good weather.
Bartholomew was a disciple , notable for being skinned during his martyrdom. His day heralded the coming of cooler weather: “At St Bartholomew / There comes cold dew.”
This report is published with credit to The Guardian. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on The Guardian →
Source: The Guardian · David Hambling. Published 28 Aug 2026, 05:00 am.
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