They have a name. Yes, the shooting stars that make us keep our noses up on August 10th, are called Perseids. Here, we also discover it now, after careful research that obviously led us to consult the greatest expert in science and astronomy: Piero Patrimoniodell'umanità Angela.
Origins of the Night of San Lorenzo
The night of San Lorenzo is not a recent tradition, in fact since the times of the ancient Romans, men have felt wonder and amazement for this phenomenon.
Reports of sightings of the Perseids have been found even in 36 AD, in China, even if the tradition of the “night of the stars” certainly dates back to the Greco-Roman era. Before the advent of Christianity, in fact, haruspices and priests were often charged with interpreting the signs of nature as divine signs.
In Sparta, for example, every 9 years, the King was necessarily subjected to the will of the stars: if someone saw a shooting star in that period, the ruler had to be deposed because the phenomenon was interpreted as a bad omen, a harbinger of misfortune .
In Rome, however, a month dedicated to the emperor -Augustus- was celebrated in August and, in particular, among the many festivities connected with agriculture, one of the most heartfelt events was the procession of Priapus. Priapus, a deity linked to male fertility and from which the term priapism derives, was carried in procession through the streets of the city and if someone spotted shooting stars at that moment, they directly linked them to the "sowing of Priapus", an omen of an excellent harvest in the following months.
How did we come to call it the Night of San Lorenzo?
At the beginning of August 258 the emperor Valerian had issued an edict, according to which all bishops, presbyters and deacons were to be put to death:
«Episcopi et presbyteri et deacones incontinenti animadvertantur»
(Tascio Cecilio Cipriano, Epistle lxxx, 1)
Source: wikipedia
In short, let's say that Valerian was not someone you could joke around with much and he didn't take the issue of Christianity very well, which had an inexorable impact on Lorenzo. We know little about him: it is said that he was originally from Spain, from Oscan in Aragon, near the Pyrenees.
As a young man he was sent to Saragossa to complete his humanistic and theological studies and here he met Sixtus, who at the time was a Master of one of the most famous and appreciated Study Centers. Here Lorenzo began a relationship of friendship and trust with the future Pope, so much so that he followed him to Rome.
In 257 Sixtus was elected Bishop of Rome and Lorenzo was immediately entrusted with the task of archdeacon. Lorenzo's pious work, however, did not last long; once Emperor Valerian issued the death edict, the sentence was carried out immediately. The first to be killed was Pope Sixtus II, on August 6, during the celebration of the Eucharist in the catacombs of Prestato; four days later it was Lorenzo's turn, burned on a grill.
From this event was born the belief that the Perseid shower was the testimony of the tears, also called tears of Saint Lawrence, shed during his martyrdom or, according to Saint Ambrose, the memory of the glimmer of the embers that were lit and which caused his death.
What does Science tell us?
Back to reality, there is a scientific explanation that describes the Perseid shower. First, let's clarify the terms: the Perseids are not stars but Meteors . I know, we are giving you news that will shatter your childhood dreams, but we are honest merchants and we do not want to deceive you. When the rocky fragments of a comet come into contact with the atmosphere, they begin to burn due to friction, which causes the phenomenon that we know: a bright shower (meteors) that we observe with the naked eye always in the first ten days of August.
Going into even more detail, the Perseid shower, in particular, is a mix of dust and ice left by the comet Swift-Tuttle during its periodic promenade around the Sun. The name Perseids, as you can imagine, comes from the name of the constellation of Perseus, from which all the light trails seem to start. The phenomenon is obviously not only observable on the night of August 10, but rather manifests itself from the end of July with a peak of activity, in which you can see up to 100 shooting "stars" per hour, on August 12 or 13.
And the desire? And the rush of ehhhm?
Aside from the fact that we grew up with Cinderella and this taught us that dreams are wishes and August 10th is all year round, in fact we have also created our own personal celestial vault ( you can find it here ), but we understand the enthusiasm for the thing. The legends around this tradition are different, but almost all are more or less based on the concept of wish.
We can quote the definition of desiderantes proposed by Julius Caesar in De Bello Gallico: soldiers who awaited their dispersed comrades at the end of a battle that usually took place at sunset. Therefore the hope - the good omen - of seeing them return alive and well hovered in the starry nights.
Of course there is also the one linked to the death of San Lorenzo : the custom of making a wish every time you see a shooting star goes hand in hand with the iconography of the saint burning in the glowing embers. At that moment, we ask the Saint for an intercession in our life and we hope that he will make our wish come true.
Sailor, oh my sailor! You surely know that sailors during the long months alone at sea, had only one desire... rum! and their families on dry land. And what was the only solution to return to their beloved? Follow the stars and navigate by them.
Last but not least there is an etymological reason : the word desire is composed of the Latin ending de and the term sidus , which means… drum roll: star. So literally desire means “ to stop contemplating the stars for good wishes”