The old English saying: Ne'er cast a clout til May be out

Did you know there are actually two meanings behind the phrase "Ne'er cast a clout till May be out"?

"Clout" is an Old English word for clothing. According to poems from 1855, in the Whitby Gazette and in Thomas Fuller’s “Gnomologia” in 1732, as well as the Farmers Almanac, the saying suggests people should not rid their winter clothes until May is out.

However, although poems say this, English farm-workers would often suffer from heat exhaustion during May if they were still wearing their winter clothes.

Instead, the flowering of the hawthorne was used as a guide as to when the winter clothes could be forgotten.

So really, the saying "Ne'er cast a clout till May be out" can come with two meanings. One which relates to the end of the month and one that takes the blossom of the hawthorne into consideration. Which one would you use?