Engraving of the constellation Virgo, showing a winged young woman in a red dress and green underskirt holding a palm branch in her right hand and in her left a sheaf of wheat, corresponding to the the star Spica, as shown in Plate 21 of Urania's Mirror, published 1824.

August 15th is Ferragosto, a big-time holiday in Italy that harks back to the Emperor Augustus and represents a well-earned rest after the harvest. It is also the Feast Day of the Assumption, the day on which, Catholics believe, the Virgin Mary was taken, body and soul, into heaven.

Is there a connection between them? And what does it have do with wheat?

Apologies to listeners in the southern hemisphere; this may not reflect your experience.

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