The Snake Welcomes The Groundhog
February 2, 2001: Groundhog Day The midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
You can see more charts and graphs and read all about the Chinese Calendar - Groundhog Day connection in this site [1]. It is a dandy! There is no mention, by the way, whether or not groundhog tastes like chicken. Or if it is cooked with MSG.
The legend of Groundhog Day is best described in the lyrics of an old Scottish couplet:
"If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year."
There are Celtic origins to this legend, to be sure, yet there are an astounding number of parallels in other religious, cultural, and lifestyle traditions. From the Chinese (yes, it is still the Year of The Snake, and now the day of The Groundhog!) to the Scots, the Germans, the Pagans, Witches, and more.
Celtic Pagan tradition shows a bawdy revelry in the celebration of this midway point, half the way from Winter to Spring. In pagan times the day was known as Imbolog. The religious observations were not somber. Quite the opposite: Pagans drank barrels of mead, defiled virgins, and sacrificed to the gods various animals they considered inedible. Note that the defiling of virgins is a joyous celebration, predating Ashcroft or dubyuh. Will dubyuh issue a Groundhog Day proclamation?
Obviously there is no such or sort of Obeah observance of Imbolog, Candlemas, or Groundhog Day. After all, the pagans sacrificed goats, to them an inedible creature. Go to Jamaica, Haiti, or other Caribbean haunts: not only do they eat goats, but they pay no attention to it being the midpoint of Winter, with Springtime a mere six weeks away.
There exists a wealth of information about Groundhog Day. And it isn't all about Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, either.
Candlemas in many traditions represents the 40th day after the 
virgin birth. In biblical times (and in certain Orthodox Jewish quarters yet today), a Jewish woman would go into semi-seclusion for 40 days after giving birth to a son. From December 25th to February 2nd: 40 days. To some Christian sects it is this day that celebrates the coming of Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem to offer sacrifice, both on behalf of Mary and on behalf of Jesus as a first-born male. As they did so, they were greeted by the aged Simeon. In a website [2] that begins with the name Elvis (another religion, to some, but more on that another time), we learn that because an old reading for this festival contains the line (Zephaniah 1:12), "I will search Jerusalem with candles," the day is also known as Candlemas, and it is sometimes observed with a candle-lit procession.
The elvis site [3] apparently emanates from Rowan University. Click around there and see that there are a bunch of Mars watchers to be found. Any groundhogs on Mars, you think?
Even the Wiccans claim some stake in the tradition. Two more poetic takes on the Candlemas Day theme:
If Candlemas day be sunny and bright, Winter again will show its might.
If Candlemas day be cloudy and grey, Winter soon will pass away.
If Candlemas day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight.
If Candlemas day be shower and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again.
Those two versions come from Selena [4] Fox's site [5], and were presented as part of her Celtic Shamanism weekend seminar.
How, you may wonder, did the focus of this foretelling event come to lie in Punxsutawney, Pa.? From The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, February 2, 1983:
The Illinois Department of Conservation warns that it's not wise to pin hopes for winter's end on the possibility the lowly woodchuck, as groundhogs are called in this area, will emerge from his digs on a shadowless day.
The furry mammals rarely venture out of their winter burrows until March, according to DOC staff member Gary Thomas, because they prefer a cozy nest to February winds.
Further in the article we learn that German settlers in the Punxsutawny area may be the source of this lore:
The Groundhog Day tradition is an import, according to Thomas. He said German settlers in Pennsylvania believed their European hedgehog could forecast winter's end. In their new country they looked around for hedgehogs, but they had to settle for woodchucks, the closest local facsimile.
The most succinct description of Groundhog Day can be found in a site [6] which asks that one get permission in advance to publish it, and specifically says no webpage reproduction of the article is allowed. Okay, respectably requested, and so honored. To see it, click on the link. It is worth a peek.
Groundhogs can be a menace to homeowners with gardens. Vegetarians, yes. They won't eat your dog or your cat. But they are ferocious and voracious eaters, and in the wild they chomp on succulent green plants, such as dandelion greens, clover, plantain and grasses. They burrow under the oddest places. My own experience was with one that chose to spend his winter in a hibernation hole he dug out under the concrete slab that framed around the pool in my backyard, when I lived in Airmont. That same groundhog (woodchuck?) dined on what dropped off the apple tree, and my ex's [7] garden. I guess the groundhog enjoyed chives and zucchini!
There is one final and undisputable truth regarding Groundhog Day. No matter whether Punxsutawny Phil sees his shadow or not, we know this to be true: there will definitely be six more weeks of Basketball.
