So… Another rotting month is upon us. Yes, it’s “rötmånad” time again – from either the 22nd, or 23rd or 24th of July until either the 22nd or 23rd or 24th of August. And to be honest, I really don’t understand why in this day and age we still have to put up with this old superstition. But is it just a superstition? Or maybe something more?

I read something not so long ago that the old folk belief that more people get sick during the “rotting month” is actually a fact. A bunch of Finnish scientists wanted to know whether it was true or not, and guess what? They set out to disprove this belief and got a mighty surprise when the results came in. Surgery patients double the risk of developing bacterial infections during this time of the year.

And “according to old Finnish folk beliefs, hot and stagnant conditions during summer slow the healing process and increase the incidence of infection between mid-July and mid-August.”

Oh really? If this was really true then people in Greece, Spain and Italy should be dying by the thousands. Hot and stagnant conditions in Finland or Sweden? “Is this some kind of a joke?” asked my Spanish friend who read about this study, and who just happens to be an exchange student in Sweden.

But then the same friend went down to his local Ica supermarket to buy milk and bread and wept in the vegetable isle. “Most of the vegetables were disgusting,” he complained. I told him it was the rotting month and that this was tradition. Even in the day of refrigerated trucks and freezers the size of train carriages, the old time-honored custom of rotting must be preserved. He laughed at me and bought a carton of milk.

The very next day he called to say, “Guess what? The milk has turned sour already!” Now the poor fella is not laughing anymore and knows that rötmånaden should not be mocked. Because it does exist.

But what I want to know is how it works – do things rot because we believe this is the rotting season, or do they rot regardless of our belief, because this is the rotting season? My very rational mind tells me that in this day and age things should not rot anymore, and especially not in Sweden. But the milk in Jose’s fridge tells a very different story. Hmmm…

Either way, take care to avoid food poisoning during this season!