the Ice Kings

[Mark A Mandel]

from a correspondent:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 11:30:37 +0100

By the by, I thought I'd mention an expression my mother used this
weekend that I only hear from her at this time of year.

She says that her grandmother used to say that you shouldn't plant
before May 15, because May 13/14/15 were the Ice Kings. After them,
it doesn't frost. (Well, except this year, which is why she was
talking about the rule being broken. It frosted last night, even!)

Now, my mother says this is an old German thing. A lot of times, that
seems to mean it's an "old Germans who live in Dayton" thing, and is
long forgotten in Germany. Obviously the climate differences would
mean that the Ice Kings would have to be different days in Germany,
too.

But has anybody else ever heard of this? Googling various keywords on
the Web and Usenet produced only hockey references....