The Mythmaker: "Sun Showers"

When I was a young girl, my Grandmother's favorite pass time, was sitting on her porch and reading her bible for more than a "spell". It was where she shared witty antidotes and shared a quiet wisdom, that could not be bought or sold.

She sat and she sat; listening and watching the ends and outs of our urban neighborhood in North St. Louis. She was a very superstitious woman. You know the one who always told you what will happen, before it actually happens.

She would always began, saying something like:

"If you break a mirror, you will receive 7 years of bad luck."

" Step on a crack, break your mama's back."

" If a black cat crosses your path, it means bad luck." Carry a rabbit's foot, you will receive good luck." And so on, and so forth....etc.

She always had a story to tell. But the one I was always and still intrigued about was the story of the "Devil beating his Wife."

I'm not sure who told her this story, but is it very simple. If the sun is shining and it begins to rain at the same time, hers eyes would glimmer a bit; a slow smile would appear on her face. She, would stare off into the sky, and say, "The Devil is beating his wife."

Basically, when it's raining and sunny at the same time, many call this phenomenon a "Sun shower." But where did the term, "The Devil is beating his wife" come from?

I curiously went online searching for an explanation.

Several cultures attribute this phenomenon to folkloric tales featuring clever animals or tricksters being related to or getting married to the devil.

For example, in the Southern United States and Hungary, when they experience a sun shower, they say “the devil is beating his wife with a walking stick,” while the French would say “the devil is beating his wife and marrying his daughter.”

The first recorded use of this phrase was in 1703 in a French play: “to go and thrash him around the churchyard, as the devil does his wife in rainy weather when the sun shines.”

In France, it is either "Le diable bat sa femme et marie sa fille" or "the devil beats his wife and marries his daughter", or "Le diable bat sa femme pour avoir des crêpes", meaning "the devil beats his wife to have crêpes". Both were inspired from Plutarch's poem in Eusebius' Praeparatio Evangelica where Zeus, angry with Hera, made her believe that he was marrying Daedale when in fact it was a wooden statue. Hera, jealous, provoked a heavy downpour on the wedding day but at the same time realized the trick.

In Hawaii, it is known as "ghost rain" or "liquid sunshine".

In Nigeria, when it rains and the sun is shining at the same time, people say that a Lion is giving or has given birth.

In South African English, a "sun shower" is referred to as a "monkey's wedding", a loan translation of the Zulu Umshado Wezinkawu, meaning a wedding for a monkey.

As I did more research, I stumbled across a poem that could describe what "Sun showers" mean to author Natalie Shapero:

For me, the thought of the Devil beating his significant other arouses questions in me. "Who is the Devil's wife?" and "What did she do that she deserved to be beaten?"

Sun showers were and still are beautiful to me. At times, I would think it meant that God was crying; that he was sad, but still allowed us to see the beauty of the sun, which for me provides a gentle hope that things would get better. I compare this phenomenon to a bad marriage.

Maybe it is just a myth. But, what if there was some truth to this unusual weather occurrence?

As an adult, when I witness this occurrence of the sun shining while it rains, I think of my grandmother Mary. I think of the expression on her face when it would happen; a quiet knowing of sorts. It was like, she knew exactly why the Devil was beating his wife.

It was as if she had met "El Diablo" personally. So when I see a "Sun shower," my first thoughts are of her, sitting on that porch. Looking and watching. Watching and looking.

You just never know.

Maybe we will see a "sun shower" today.

And when it happens, you will know the "Devil is beating his wife."

It's the only explanation.

And according to my grandmother,

it's the only way. -AK