Question
Why do people say “The devil is beating his wife” to describe a rainstorm that occurs while the Sun is shining?
Answer
Some variation of this expression pops up often in Dutch and Hungarian, but we can’t find a direct link between it and a sun shower. We did, however, find these sayings about sun showers: “The devil is getting married” (Hungarian), “The devil is kissing his wife” (Appalachian), and “The devil is having a parish fair” (German). We found a whole slew of other sayings describing this weather phenomenon, including many involving animal weddings, such as “The rats are getting married” (Arabic) — or the bears (Bulgaria), jackals (India), tigers (Korea), or leopards (Africa).
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