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  What it means

  If St Agnes (21 January) releases snow from her bag, it won’t stop until St Francis’s Day (4 October). A hyperbolic folk proverb saying that snow starting around St Agnes’s Day can persist for a very long time.

  Vocabulary

  • Agnieszka — Agnes (saint's name)
  • wypuścić — to release, to let out
  • mieszk — pouch, bag (archaic)
  • powstrzymać — to stop, to hold back
  • Franciszek — Francis (saint's name)

  Grammar note

  'Wypuści' is perfective future third person singular. 'Ani do Franciszka' — 'ani' here means 'not even until'.

  Cultural context

  St Agnes's Day is 21 January; St Francis of Assisi is 4 October. The proverb humorously spans nearly the whole year.

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