French Expression of the Day: à la saint-glinglin
Introducing France’s made-up patron saint of procrastination
Why do I need to know à la saint-glinglin?
Because you may need to know if someone’s trying to put off doing something.
What does it mean?
A la saint-glinglin – roughly pronounced "a la sann glan glan" – is a French expression that translates as “on Saint Glinglin’s day”.
France may be a secular nation, but its Catholic heritage persists in several of its public holidays - the recent Toussaint, for example - and in its diaries and televised weather forecasts, which routinely reference Saints’ days.
READ ALSO Why does secular France have Catholic holidays
Enter Saint Glinglin. You won’t find this particular saint in any diary, or when the following day’s sunrise and sunset times are mentioned at the end of any weather forecast. That’s because they don’t exist.
By extension, because the saint doesn’t exist, their day is, therefore, undefined. And the term refers to an unspecified and indeterminate date in the future.
Anglophones may use the rather less liturgically respectful term ‘when hell freezes over’ or perhaps 'the 10th of never'.
According to legend, a money-lender once agreed a loan to be repaid on Saint Glinglin’s Day. Realising that day would never come, the money-lender took the borrower to court - and won a decision that the loan should be repaid on Toussaint, All Saints’ Day, the one day of the year that celebrates every saint, known or unknown.
Intriguingly, Saint-Glinglin is celebrated in Prenay (Loir-et-Cher) on the last Saturday in August, when a straw doll is paraded through the village on a cart and then burnt on a bonfire.
The ‘saint’ is also honoured in two towns in Belgium - Glain ( Liège ) and Ghlin ( Mons ) - on June 3rd. It somehow seems appropriate that the fictitious patron saint of putting things off should have two celebration dates, months apart.
You could also use: ‘quand les poules auront les dents’ (literally: when chickens have teeth - also used as a metaphor in English to describe something rare) or ‘à la semaine des quatre jeudis’ (literally: on a week with four Thursdays) or ‘au 30 février’ (on February 30th).
Use it like this
Je te paierai à la Saint-Glinglin - I will pay you on the 10th of never
Le conducteur poussa un coup de klaxon pour me rappeler qu’il ne pouvait pas attendre jusqu’à la Saint-Glinglin - the driver blew his horn to remind me that he couldn't wait until hell freezes over
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Why do I need to know à la saint-glinglin?
Because you may need to know if someone’s trying to put off doing something.
What does it mean?
A la saint-glinglin – roughly pronounced "a la sann glan glan" – is a French expression that translates as “on Saint Glinglin’s day”.
France may be a secular nation, but its Catholic heritage persists in several of its public holidays - the recent Toussaint, for example - and in its diaries and televised weather forecasts, which routinely reference Saints’ days.
READ ALSO Why does secular France have Catholic holidays
Enter Saint Glinglin. You won’t find this particular saint in any diary, or when the following day’s sunrise and sunset times are mentioned at the end of any weather forecast. That’s because they don’t exist.
By extension, because the saint doesn’t exist, their day is, therefore, undefined. And the term refers to an unspecified and indeterminate date in the future.
Anglophones may use the rather less liturgically respectful term ‘when hell freezes over’ or perhaps 'the 10th of never'.
According to legend, a money-lender once agreed a loan to be repaid on Saint Glinglin’s Day. Realising that day would never come, the money-lender took the borrower to court - and won a decision that the loan should be repaid on Toussaint, All Saints’ Day, the one day of the year that celebrates every saint, known or unknown.
Intriguingly, Saint-Glinglin is celebrated in Prenay (Loir-et-Cher) on the last Saturday in August, when a straw doll is paraded through the village on a cart and then burnt on a bonfire.
The ‘saint’ is also honoured in two towns in Belgium - Glain ( Liège ) and Ghlin ( Mons ) - on June 3rd. It somehow seems appropriate that the fictitious patron saint of putting things off should have two celebration dates, months apart.
You could also use: ‘quand les poules auront les dents’ (literally: when chickens have teeth - also used as a metaphor in English to describe something rare) or ‘à la semaine des quatre jeudis’ (literally: on a week with four Thursdays) or ‘au 30 février’ (on February 30th).
Use it like this
Je te paierai à la Saint-Glinglin - I will pay you on the 10th of never
Le conducteur poussa un coup de klaxon pour me rappeler qu’il ne pouvait pas attendre jusqu’à la Saint-Glinglin - the driver blew his horn to remind me that he couldn't wait until hell freezes over
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