News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Counting fogs in August, wasp building nests at high levels and darker colored wooly worms are all old wives tales that indicate a severe winter, but are they fact or folklore.
Dr. Graham Kash teaches folklore at Tennessee Tech University. He said while these beliefs are common, science does not support these supposed truths.
“We like to believe this lore, because we want to know what’s going on,” Kash said. “It bothers us if we do not know what is going on, and we like to have some predictions.”
Kash said most of these beliefs originate from Europe or Native Americans hundreds of years ago and are passed down from generation to generation.
“You take for example the idea that the groundhog can predict whether there is going to be much more winter,” Kash said. “That one is closely parallel to one in Germany about their badgers predicting weather. In fact, it may be derived partly from that and partly from some American Indian lore. This folklore goes back hundreds of years at least.
Kash said one common belief that does hold truth is that a ring around the moon suggests rain is more likely. Ice crystals in the atmosphere cause this phenomenon signaling high humidity and a chance of rain.
“It is passed down largely by family members,” Kash said. “For example, the idea that it means the devil is whipping his wife if you have rain and sunshine at the same time as is sometimes the case in the winter. I think my mother and my grandmother both told me this lore.”
Often time, these folklore are passed down mainly because people find them interesting and use them in daily life, said Kash.
