Change not a clout till May be out

31 May · England

Lore and belief

People were warned not to put off their winter clothing until the end of May, since cold east winds and even snow could return in its first fortnight. Chambers gave the proverb among his notes on the character of May, calling the month after all very much a spring month.

proverbial wisdom warns us against being too eager to regard it as a time for light clothing : ' Change not a clout Till May be out.'

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 569. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Dover’s Cotswold Games Still kept GloucestershireThe hills above the Vale of Evesham had long been a meeting place for country people, with a shepherds' king, dancing and feasting.
The Trinity garland at Newnton No longer kept WiltshireAt Newnton in North Wiltshire a Trinity Sunday rite recalled King Athelstan's gift of a common and a house for the hayward.
Mown grass in Clee church No longer kept LincolnshireOn Trinity Sunday, the feast of dedication, Clee church was strewn with fresh mown grass.
Nod Beuno calves on Trinity Sunday at Clynnog No longer kept CaernarfonshireCalves and lambs born with the Nod Beuno, a natural mark in the ear, belonged to St Beuno and were brought to his church at Clynnog on Trinity Sunday, the saint's anniversary.
Splashing at Taff’s Well after Easter No longer kept GlamorganAbout seventy years before Trevelyan wrote, the young people of the parish gathered at Taff's Well, a thermal spring a few miles above Cardiff, on the eighth Sunday after Easter.

Change not a clout till May be out

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