For German speakers, Sauregurkenzeit is that period of time in late summer when nothing much is happening, known in English as the dog days. The German term derives from sauer, “sour,” and Gurke “cucumber,” plus Zeit or “time.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Sauregurkenzeit: Sour Pickle Time”
Grant, it’s Sauer Gürkenzeit.
It’s Sauer Pickle Day.
Yes, Sauer Pickle Time. That’s it.
What does that mean? Is this the day when we air our grievances?
Is this another name for Festivus?
Well, no, pickle time in German is a period when there’s very little economic or political or cultural activity, usually during the summer months, you know, sort of that lull during the summer when, when especially in Germany, businesses close, schools out, you know, they get all that vacation over there.
And they refer to that as sauregurkenzeit, which means pickled cucumber time, probably because in late 18th century Berlin, there was a pickle harvest about that time.
And that’s when people were, you know, canning pickles.
Okay.
Nothing else to do.
It makes a lot of sense.
It reminds me of summers in New York.
August in New York was always a lovely time because it felt like half the city was away.
Yeah, they left.
Unlike Paris, New York doesn’t really close in August, but it does empty out.
So you can just go about your business and just everything was very unpopulated.
You could get a seat at your favorite restaurant and not worry about getting tickets to a great movie.
And the parks would be, you know, lovely and uncrowded.
It was just a really good time.
But hot as heck.
I was going to say, you sweat a lot, right?
Yeah.
