Regardless of what the groundhog says, six more weeks until spring

Published 8:28 am Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Groundhog Day, which will be celebrated Friday, is a rite of winter. It is celebrated most arduously in Punxsutawney, Pa. The town’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, will emerge from his winter burrow to give his spring forecast.
Chances are that regardless of the weather, it will be six more weeks of winter.
There is no scientific basis to the groundhog’s weather forecast, and there’s no reliable track record of groundhogs accurately predicting when winter will end.
Yet, early Friday, scores of media outlets and persons from the east to the west, and from north to south, will be watching to see what happens with a few high-profile groundhogs when they’re placed in daylight.
The notion that sunshine on the second of February indicates a late spring began in ancient Europe hundreds of years ago. That date marks the pagan festival of Imbolc, halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox. In the Celtic world, Imbolc was, and for some, still is, a celebration of the goddess Brigid or Brigit, traditional patroness of healing, poetry, hearth and home, agriculture, and fertility. She was also a fierce combatant who played adversaries like a champ.
As Christianity spread, Imbolc was supplanted by Candlemas Day, dedicated to — no surprise — Saint Brigid, who presumably was less prone to violence than warrior-goddess Brigid. But both traditions reference the “sunny equals more winter, and cloudy means impending spring” theme.
Mostly because Europe lacked groundhogs, Groundhog Day was invented in the New World, first popping up among Pennsylvania Germans, who were steeped in the Candlemas tradition, in the early to mid-1800s. Though Punxsutawney Phil was the original prognosticating marmot, others soon followed.
Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks, which can cause a bit of confusion. The children’s rhyme “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” suggests that woodchucks feed on trees, but this is not the case. Like the words skunk, squash, hickory, moose, and many other terms, woodchuck (wojak) is of Native American origin, Algonquin in this case. Regardless its literal translation, most suspect it means “fat fur-ball that can inhale your garden faster than you can say Punxsutawney Phil,” or something like that.
Tellingly, another moniker is “whistle-pig,” referring both to groundhogs’ warning call and their over-active appetites.
Some folks love winter, such as ski and sledding enthusiasts. However, most of us love to see winter go, and will be rooting for a cloudy day on Friday. We won’t be disappointed if Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t see his shadow.
That’s because we all know the groundhogs aren’t forecasters — at least most of us do.
Six weeks from now, we’ll be in March, just days away from the official beginning of spring. Snow in March, especially in these Tennessee hills, is rather normal as is balmy weather. Maybe we should keep the groundhog prognosticators inside Friday and find a way to ensure that Groundhog Day is overcast so we can get an early dismissal from winter.
Happy Groundhog Day Friday!

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