St Lawrence's Tears

Nothing to do with the fact that the St Lawrence O'Toole Pipe Band only got 6th in the worlds on Saturday. Sixth is actually pretty darn good. Not, of course, as good as they deserved but nothing to cry over.

St Lawrence's tears actually refers to the Perseid meteor shower that occurs about this time of year. St Lawrence's feast day, the anniversary of his martyrdom by fire, was (and still is) on the 10th of August. The Perseid meteor shower begins a few day before his feast and ends a few day afterward. If you're up tonight or tomorrow night from about 1:00 a.m. to dawn take a look at the northeast sky and you will see the various "shooting stars" that make up the Perseid meteors. They're called St Lawrence's tears as the heavens themselves weep at St Lawrence's suffering.

(The link was put up for the 2005 occurrence but it works for 2007 just the same.)