wolfinthewood | A charm against rain

A charm against rain

Little children have a custome, when it raines to sing, or charme away the Raine: thus, they all joine in a Chorus, and sing thus. viz

Raine, raine, goe away,
Come again a Saterday.

I have a conceit, that this childish Custome is of great antiquity: and that it is derived from the Gentiles.*

*Gentiles: the ancient pagans

John Aubrey (1626–1697)

from Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme (1688)

The rhyme was ‘Rain, rain, go away, / Come again another day’ in the fifties and early sixties when I was a child. At that point the custom was well over three centuries old, since Aubrey’s note implies, I think, that he remembered it from his own childhood, in the 1620s and 1630s. How old it already was by that time, who can tell? I wonder if children still say it. I haven’t heard it for years, but then I don’t have much to do with small kids these days.

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Dropping in via friends friends to say that I was born in 1976, and certainly was singing it (your version) in the early 80s. I had no idea before reading this that it was of any antiquity.

We also had a charm to make it rain; singing "When I needed a neighbour" in Assembly meant it would probably rain, but this could be guaranteed by someone tidying the classroom money tray during the morning.

I had no idea before reading this that it was of any antiquity.

Nor had I, till I stumbled across the passage in Aubrey, some years back. I was rather amazed.

We also had a charm to make it rain

I love this! Why did you want to make it rain? So you could all stay in at break?

So you could all stay in at break?

Got it in one. Once we were out at playtime (especially at lunchtime, which was then, of course, dinnertime) the weather had to be really pretty unpleasant before we were allowed back in, and there was no cover at all. Staying in from the beginning was much to be preferred in bad weather, and also a rare extra chance for "activities". Maybe it was psychologically more difficult to throw 4 - 9 year olds out into the pouring rain, than not to let them in if it started falling!

(in the "come again another day" version) when I was a kid, in the 1970s.

Did the floods get you? Are you OK?

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

We're fine just at the moment, thanks; we had some heavy rain this afternoon, as forecast, but it never came down in absolute sheets, and it has now drifted off to plague someone else. The forecasters are now promising two days of mostly dry weather, which will give the ground a chance to dry out, and the rivers time to subside. What will happen after that, who knows? Metcheck (http://www.metcheck.com) says mostly dry for at least the next week, but the BBC is still threatening more heavy rain on Sunday. Concensus seems to be that there will be a break in the rain in early August, but that there may well be more serious downpours later in the summer. And the fun really starts if we go into winter with the ground sodden and the rivers full.

Leicestershire has been amazingly lucky so far, compared to Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, but yesterday my partner went to the local farm shop where we do a lot of our food shopping and found that in that village the sewers backed up on Friday and sewage started to come out of the drains, and did not stop till it had nearly reached the farmers' doorstep: this kind of story keeps us focused. However, we now have a large stack of small rubble sacks part filled with earth (in lieu of sandbags) stacked in the yard, and a set of proprietary airbrick covers are due to arrive in the post tomorrow. Cross fingers we won't ever need them, but we'll feel safer if we have got them handy. Of course, most people locally are not bothering with this kind of preparation; I am not sure whether this is stoic philosophy or lack of imagination, but I'm inclined to suspect the latter. Me, I have been storing several days' worth of drinking water in the garden shed ever since I read online about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. My partner used to view this with tolerant amusement, but since the news of the serious water shortages in Gloucestershire (a water treatment plant was flooded), she has agreed that I have a point.

I was born in 1987 and I remember singing it my whole childhood (the another day version)
Everyone knew it and I have worked with a lot of children and they know it!
I think it is safe to say that this rhyme is gonna be sticking around. unless people stop going outside...

we also had "It's raining, it's pouring,/ the old man is snoring./ He bumped his head on the foot of the bed / and won't wake up till morning."

this always confused me. what does a clumsy old man with a concussion have to do with rain?

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A charm against rain

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We used to say it

Re: We used to say it

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