Silly season or cucumber time

Published August 10, 2018 by

Aleksandra Strzelichowska (Europeana Foundation)

This period of the summer, when not much is happening in the political sphere, is called the silly season in English. Due to a lack of newsworthy events to report on, the media focus on trivial and frivolous matters and hoax stories, as explained in the Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable from 1898:

The Silly Season for daily newspapers, is when Parliament is not in session, and all sorts of “silly” stuff are vamped-up for padding. Also called the “Big Gooseberry Season,” because paragraphs are often inserted on this subject.

'Cucumber time' is another name for this time of the year, due to cucumbers being in season during the summer months.

Brewer's Dictionary makes a connection between cucumber time – when the gentry leaves the city and goes to the countryside to enjoy the summer – and tailors’ difficulties with finding work:

Cucumber time - The dull season in the tailoring trade. The Germans call it Die saure Gurken Zeit (pickled gherkin time). Hence the expression 'Tailors are vegetarians', because they live on 'cucumber' when without work, and on 'cabbage' when in full employ.

The term 'cucumber time' is used in many European languages - komkommertijd in Dutch, agurktid in Norwegian, sezon ogòrkowy in Polish, okurková sezóna in Czech, hapukurgihooaeg in Estonian and uborkaszezon in Hungarian.

Instead of cucumbers, Swedes have the nyhetstorka (news drought) while the French refer to la morte saison - the dead season.

Luckily there are ways to avoid dull news reports and TV re-runs.

Of course, you can go outside, explore, play sports, meet with friends. But if you can’t imagine your life without looking at a screen, we have a perfect solution for you! We’ve selected some easy to digest content from Europeana to match the summer vibes and bring you some enjoyment:

1. Explore cucumbers, gherkins, pickles available on Europeana

Are you looking for a cucumber-inspired aesthetic experience? Or maybe you aim to achieve a complete state of perfection in the cultivation of cucumbers? Even if you don't, this is your unique opportunity to consciously and intentionally discover cultural heritage content related to cucumbers. Enjoy it here!

2. Visit an exhibition or a gallery

No need to move away from the poolside - visit our exhibition 'The Past But Not As You Know It'.

It includes cute animals, unusual professions and retro celebrities

Explore the gallery 'Holiday snapshots'. It shows people enjoying holidays and doing the same things as you, but in different times and places.

Virtually visit European landscapes and landmarks in this gallery.

It has Beautiful landscapes and better colours than on Instagram filters. No hot dog legs, ‘follow me’ hands or ice creams obstructing the view.

3. Or create your own gallery

Our collections are like the ocean - deep, wide and fascinating, so we totally understand if you find yourself diving for hours.

Did you know that with Europeana account, you can 'like' the items that catch your attention? And if there are a lot of them, it makes sense to curate them a little, which you can do creating a gallery. Here's how.

And if you need some inspirations, take a look at these examples of galleries created by others:

4. Make a meme

Does 'cucumber time' exist in the meme world? We don’t know, but aren’t you bored with the Success Kid and Forever Alone? Create new awesome memes using openly licensed images available on Europeana, for example, vintage cartoons.

A tooth-drawer using a cord to extract a tooth from an agonized patient. Coloured engraving by J. Collier, 1810, after himself, 1773, The Wellcome Library, CC BY, Caption by Klara Sielicka-Baryłka (Państwowe Muzeum Etnograficzne)