Meaning: The rhyme makes a husband dread a clear, pleasant Candlemas as strongly as his wife’s death. It exaggerates the fear attached to a calendar-weather sign.
Meaning: The saying connects a green winter with a full churchyard. Its grim image associates a winter condition with increased deaths without explaining the cause.
Meaning: The saying gives sunshine at a wedding and rain at a funeral favourable meanings. It assigns different weather wishes to two very different occasions.
Meaning: The saying associates a hot May with a full churchyard. It makes a month’s warmth an ominous sign of deaths without providing a measured relationship.
