It was 74 degrees in October today in Massachusetts, which naturally engendered all sorts of meaningful conversations about what it means. Most of them were stupid. I did get to over hear one bit of interesting trivia in the gym locker room, however. A Russian fellow was trying to find the words to explain that they refer to "Indian Summer" as "Woman Summer" in his country, which was super cool for me to listen to because it's rare that you actually get a chance to see a multi-cultural demonstration of your country's racism being translated in real time into another country's sexism.
Why Indian? though? "Well, no one knows but, as is commonplace when no one knows, many people have guessed. Here are a few of the more commonly repeated guesses..."
We'll just go ahead and skip right over all the other ones and land on the one that seems most likely:
In a parallel with other 'Indian' terms it implied a belief in Indian falsity and untrustworthiness and that an Indian summer was an ersatz copy of the real thing.
That doesn't seem like the fairest way to describe a people who had the temerity to try not to be systematically slaughtered and defrauded of their land, but I wasn't around back then so I can't really judge.
Almanac.com has another guess for the meaning.
The most probable origin of the term, in our view, goes back to the very early settlers in New England. Each year they would welcome the arrival of a cold wintry weather in late October when they could leave their stockades unarmed. But then came a time when it would suddenly turn warm again, and the Native Americans would decide to have one more go at the settlers. "Indian summer," the settlers called it.Sneaky bastards, right? Surprisingly, the American term for the weather singularity may not actually be the most offensive one. Check out a list of all the different terms for the return of unseasonably warm weather from throughout the world in the Wiki entry here, including more info on my Russian friend from above.
In many Slavic-speaking countries, the season is called Old Ladies' Summer: in Russia Babye Leto (Бабье лето), in Poland Babie Lato, in Ukraine Babyne Lito (Бабине літо), in Czech Republic Babí léto, in Slovakia Babie leto, in Croatia Bablje ljeto and in Slovenia Babje leto.Only thing worse than a back-stabbing heathen Indian, of course, is a woman, right? Women are the Indians of regular people.
In Bulgaria, the phenomenon is sometimes called "Gypsy Summer" (Bulgarian: циганско лято, tsigansko lyato) and in some places "Gypsy Christmas" and refers to unseasonably warm weather in late fall, or a warm spell in between cold periods.Gypsies are the Indians of Europe, right? Native American European Non-Europeans. Surprisingly, Germany and Austria, always known for their mannered approach toward cultural differences, may have the most reasonable expression:
In Germany and Austria, it is called "Altweibersommer", or if referring to mild sunny weather during October in particular, simply "Goldener Oktober" ("Golden October").It gets worse though.
In Hungary, it's "vénasszonyok nyara" (Old Ladies' Summer or Crone's Summer) because the many white spiders seen at this time of the year have been associated with the norns of Norse folklore or medieval witches.Maybe, or maybe because you can't trust a spider anymore than you can an old lady. Who came up with this folklore by the way, Brandon Spikes?
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7 comments:
Funnily enough in England it's called St Luke's Little Summer. True story.
In India it's called that Smelly Wog Wot Stinks of Foreign Spices and Dirty Bodies aka Untrustworthy Paki Summer. It's to be celebrated vigorously by killing newborn female infants. Bhopal vas a gas.
woh dude
When I was in Hong Kong, a local told me that Filipinos were the Mexicans of Hong Kong.
Since it's Summer for 11 months of the year there, I'm not sure what the equivalent term would be...
Not cool chaps.
@Patrick - I agree. I was just passing along a personal true story is all.
Goddammit. Where is the sarcasm icon? Racist Indian summer doesn't dabble with the elderly, women, or natives. It goes full blown hateful retard. It doesn't stick its toe in the water, it cannonballs that bitch. Not cool was the point.
St. Luke's Little Summer is cute as hell. From here on I will substitute that for la petite mort.
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