Not an Indian summer – a man’s spring

According to weather forecasts, from October 5, a real Indian summer will come to the Central part of Russia. Where did this expression come from?

At first, the expression “Indian summer” denoted the period of women’s field work, and only then it began to correlate with a certain weather.

“Not an Indian summer – a man’s spring. There is a winter oak. It blooms later … ”- wrote about this time Andrew Voznesensky.

“The expression “Indian summer” is known to all Slavic and part of the Germanic languages,” explains Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Department of Slavic Philology of the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg University Valery Mokienko.

This expression has different interpretations. One of them: Indian summer is named after a thin, light web that flies through fields and forests and portends a dry autumn. This web is associated with the barely noticeable gray strands of hair in a woman, and the time of warm, fine days is associated with an age that precedes the elderly and is characterized by relative prosperity. The expression is also associated with that period in the life of the peasants, when field work and the women took to “their own work”: they soaked flax, ruffled it, wove it. Indian summer lasted one week – from the 1st or from the 8th of September.

But this year it has “shifted” by almost a month.

Also in the language there is a direct connection between the Indian summer as a designation of a certain period of the year and the traditional harvest “Indian” (or “Indian”) holidays (for example, Dozhinki), which mark the transition from summer to winter and vice versa.

So initially the expression “Indian summer” meant the period of women’s field work, and later it began to correlate with a certain weather. Later, the autumn cobweb, which was an important element of the mythological ideas of the Western Slavs, got into the meaning of this turnover. This happened due to the folk-etymological connection of the words “summer” and “fly” in the Slavic languages.

There is a time of nature of special light,
dim sun, gentle heat.

It’s called Indian Summer
and in charm argues with the spring itself …

O wisdom of the most generous Indian summer,
I accept you with joy … And yet,
my love, where are you, come around, where are you?

And the groves are silent, and the stars are getting stricter…
Olga Berggolts, Indian Summer.

“From Wednesday, October 5, there will be positive changes on the synoptic map – against the background of an increase in atmospheric pressure, it will clear up and get warmer by a degree or two. In the following days, there is a high probability of anticyclonic weather, which means that nature can give the inhabitants of Central Russia a few serene days of the old Indian summer in the second pentad of October (October 5-10), which they were completely deprived of in September. At night it will be cold and foggy in October – from 0 to 5 degrees Celsius, and during the day, in sunny, dry and calm weather, the air will be able to warm up to 10 – 15 degrees Celsius,” the leading specialist of the center wrote in his Telegram channel. weather “Phobos” Evgeny Tishkovets.

This period can still be called “real golden autumn.”

Nina DONSKIKH.

Photo by Moskovskaya Pravda