Ground-hog Day
"Folklore in many countries has long stated that the weather on February 2 forecasts weather for the following six weeks. In the United States, the ground hog, or woodchuck, is supposed to break its winter sleep on this day to take a look at weather conditions"
An Old English Rhyme expresses the weather forecasting tradition this way:
If Candlemas Day be dry and fair,
The half o' winter's to come and mair;
If Candlemas Day be wet and foul,
The half o' winter's gone at Yule.
The tradition of Groundhog day was a German tradition before immigrating over to America. In German tradition, the badger would emerge and if this was on a sunny day it forebode a prolonging of winter.
Depending on your region, the weather predicting animal could vary from a fox to a bear.
The tradition was centered around Candlemas Day. A Catholic festival that centered around the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.
Traditionally, on this festival day people would assume that good weather meant a longer winter and bad weather meant winter would be over quicker.
Candlemas was also an assimilation of a Roman festival Februa.
This festival was all about purging evil spirits, cleansing the city, and promoting good health and fertility. It is named after the Roman god Februus who is the god of purification.
Can you guess where February comes from??
February got its name in the Roman calendar and continues on to today.
So to recap:
The purging celebration of Februa, was combined by Catholics to the celebration of Jesus' presentation to the Jewish temple, that in Germany started a whole story of "how long will this winter last", to "hey that animal over there woke up", to traveling over to America where we now interrupt an animal nap to see if he has a shadow or not.
Who knew this day was so confusing?!
Fun Fact:
In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character spent 8 years, 8 months, and 16 days stuck in Groundhog Day.
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