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Why do we say “The Dog Days of Summer”?

I thought it was the entire month of August!  So. Very.  Hot.  The lazy days of summer. Where you wanted to lie in a pool all day long until your fingers were so pruny you looked 100 years old. Always the month before school. We were bored of summer and ready to get back to school to see our regular friends, rather than the neighborhood friends. Those two groups were not always the same friends. We were tired of drinking out of the hose. (Side note…our parents actually purchased a drinking fountain that connected to the hose. Maybe to make them feel less guilty about not providing drinking water to their children! SMH. 😉 )  We didn’t want to be locked out of the house and told to come back when the street lights came on. I remember playing with Barbies on the garage floor and BEGGING to come inside because I was hot and bored. Mom had locked all of us outside because she was mad were would go in, out, in, out, in, out….all day long. So, doors locked and we were OUT. As a mother, I get this concept now. However, different time, different rules. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those lazy days. Slower pace. Less to do. More time to value the important things in life – that aren’t things.

There are various opinions, most having to do with the stars, about the origins of “Dog Days”, some of which include:

Farmer’s Almanac

National Geographic

History

I think I will forever contend it is the month of August. When the locusts come and sing, signalling the end of summer is coming and we are going back to school.