Meet Sheilagh, St. Patrick's wife...........?

I was perusing the local paper when this story caught my eye. Now, understandably Newfoundland has plenty of myths and fish tales but, until the very moment I'd read this article, I had no idea St. Paddy was the marrying kind.

It got me to thinking, I live in an area pretty bereft of historical mythology. I've noticed however cities have their traditions. Often sparked by mundane, or silly events. Cheese heads or the tribes of New Orleans, the bon homme, ogopogo, running of the bulls, never take lava from hawaiian volcanos, whatever..........
I'm curious, does your city have something unique, a belief, a lucky symbol, a tradition, anything really. Just idle thoughts.

Spring cleaning came early for St. Patrick's wife, Sheilagh
The Canadian Press
Monday, March 15, 2004

ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. - Forget about groundhogs, Farmers' Almanacs and satellite systems; some Newfoundlanders swear by mythology when it comes to forecasting the weather around St. Patrick's Day.

Folks in Newfoundland say the snow that seems to fall on the Rock every year around March 17 is something more than just plain old precipitation.

It's commonly known as Sheilagh's Brush.

"There's always a large snowfall around St. Patrick's Day," explained Paul O'Neill, a past president of the Irish Newfoundland Society.

"And that is Sheilagh, St. Patrick's wife, brushing the last snow out of heaven for the winter, and it comes down on us in the form of a little storm."

The snow-sweeping myth is unique to Newfoundland, said O'Neill, whose friends in Ireland have never heard of Sheilagh's spring cleaning. O'Neill suspects the myth dates back to the first Irish settlers on Newfoundland.

But a snowstorm that dumped almost 60 centimetres in parts of Newfoundland a week ago has many wondering if Sheilagh is losing her sense of timing.