Dog Days

While my husband and I listened to the news, someone mentioned the ‘Dog Days of Summer.’ Have you thought much about what that means? Apparently, I hadn’t, at least not beyond my childhood understanding. He explained that the “dog days of summer” refer to the hottest and most uncomfortable days of the season, typically about 40 days between July and August.

I chimed in, “That may be true, but it’s also the time when you can’t go barefoot in the dew-covered grass, especially when you have a cut on your foot.”

The look on my husband’s face was priceless. “What?!? I’m trying to follow you, but I have never heard of this before….” (he’s not from Kentucky).

When we stopped laughing, I looked it up and discovered that it was an Appalachian folk tale passed down from who knows when, claiming that the morning dew is poisonous during this time of year. Maybe you’ve heard of it, or maybe you haven’t. I suppose it depends on where you’re from.

Here’s what I found online about the true origin of the phrase:

The phrase has its roots in ancient Greek and Roman times and is not actually about our canine friends on Earth. It is a reference to the star Sirius, which is also known as the “Dog Star.” Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and is part of the constellation Canis Major (The Greater Dog).

During the summer, Sirius rises and sets with the sun. The ancient Romans, who called this period dies caniculares (“dog days”), believed that the star’s heat added to the sun’s warmth, creating the extremely hot, humid weather.

Although modern science explains that summer heat is due to the Earth’s tilt toward the sun, the traditional dates for the dog days of summer remain widely recognized.

I don’t know much about Dog Stars, but I do know not to go out barefoot in the morning dew — or so I thought.

Now, as for the origin of the superstition, I found this:

It was believed that during the hot days of summer, the dew becomes poisonous. If you had scrapes on your feet, they could get infected, and this was called “fall sores” or “ground itch.” While the poisonous part is a superstition, there is a grain of truth to the underlying caution. High heat and humidity of late summer provide the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and fungi. Therefore, people who went barefoot with minor cuts on their feet would be more susceptible to infection from organisms found in the soil and damp grass. While the dew itself wasn’t poisonous, the conditions were ripe for getting an infection that would be difficult to heal.

This is an excellent example of a folk belief that gave a practical health warning, even if its reasoning was a combination of superstition and observation.

Can you relate to believing something from your childhood without question? It isn’t until we are confronted by the facts, usually in adulthood, that we even question their validity. I probably have many more examples if I think hard enough.

It made me chuckle, but it also made me think about the beliefs passed down through generations regarding God and the Bible, often without much thought or deeper investigation. This connects to false teachings not only during Paul’s and the apostles’ times but also in the modern day.

In his letters to Timothy, Paul warns about people seeking preachers who tell them what they want to hear, readily accepting myths that match their desires instead of the truth, to justify immoral behavior (2 Timothy 4:4-5; 1 Timothy 1:4).

They cloak it in enough truth to make it believable, but they modify it just enough to serve their desires. That’s the devil’s work. There are warnings about false teaching and not honoring God’s perfect Word. We are not to add to or take anything away from the Word of God (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:5-6; Rev. 22:18-19).

Back to dogs: our Pitbull, Kerbi, likes to grab whatever he finds while we’re out walking and sometimes gets away with it before I can stop him. The other day, he must have swallowed a chicken bone because when nature called, a small, sharp shard came out the wrong way, causing quite a bit of bleeding and discomfort.

My takeaway: Be cautious about what beliefs you swallow – even a slight deviation from the truth can cause severe pain and damage in the end.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4, Emphasis added).