Never ending dog days

People already in ancient Mesopotamia (bear with me, this is actually going somewhere) associated hot weather in the summer to the rise of the star Sirus, which is the brightest star in Canis Major (Large Dog) constellation. The term "Dog Days" was used at least by the ancient Greek and later by Romans (diēs caniculārēs) to refer to the particularly sultry or humid, warm days at around end of July and August.

In medieval Germany this time of the summer coincidentally was also at the same time when farmers were burning forests and woodlands in order to create fields for crops. This slash-and-burn technique provided name for this season and it became known as Rodenmonat. Now, the Danish in turn took this phrase and translated it not with the original meaning, but by the sound of it. In Denmark this season was known as råddenmåned or rotten month!

Finally when the term landed in Finland in the middle of 1600th century it was called mätäkuu (or more specifically mätekw as per Mikael Agricola, who is considered to be the de facto founder of written Finnish, had documented it into the first ever calendar in being published in Finnish language). Now the concept of rotting and decay was integral part of the term.

Interestingly, it was apparently the label itself which started living its own life in Finland and people of old times began associating things like how easily food goes bad or how wounds do not heal so quickly during this particular time of the year. Similarly there are various folklore driven beliefs associated with dogs in the parts of the world where the term Dog Days is being used.

But furthermore, it is seemingly not only folklore, as lately there was a study being conducted in a Finnish hospital, where surgeons reviewed total of 50 000 patients. It turned out that there was indeed a statistical significance in the bigger amount of infected wounds with patients during mätäkuu than any other time of the year. There was an increase in the number of bacteria, but also one probable reason was the more lighter clothing being worn during Summer and thus more likely it is to attain skin scratches and wounds.

The reason why I am relating this long winding introduction is that just recently I have ended up with two minor surface wounds on the top of my left foot or instep. The root cause was yet another pesky mosquito going after my succulent Finnish blood again and me scratching the surface of the skin while sleeping. There was no dengue this time (I am actually now immune to one particular serotype of dengue for the rest of my life, but then again would be likely to have more serious disease if I was ever contaminated by any of the remaining three other serotypes), but both of these wounds got infected quite annoyingly.

Luckily both wounds are finally getting better, but even though the last day of August is now upon us, mätäkuu is likely to continue all year around here in Singapore.


PS: Now that we are dwelling in the global etymology of words, there is a curious notion that while Dog Days is not being used in Finland, the phrase "Cat Days" in Finnish actually refers to special time of luxury and relaxation. With quick googling and wikipeding (!?) I was not able to find any similar term in other languages.

PS2: In order to give credit, where credit is due, this more academic blog entry owes much to aforementioned Wikipedia. I am so heavy Wikipedia user in both at work and at free time, that I have started to show them my support by donating. It keeps amazing me that much of the accumulated body of knowledge from entire human history is being provided free of charge and being available practically anywhere at any time. Additionally I used couple of additional Finnish articles as a source of information.

PS3: My son just realized that it is unlikely coincidence that the character Sirius Black in Harry Potter series can transform himself into a dog of all the other possible animals that a well trained Animagus can morph him- or herself into.