I have it on good authority that the little flea-bag Punxsutawny Phil did not see his shadow today thus predicting an early Spring. Happy Groundhog Day, the best holiday ever. No shopping and spending on presents, no gift wrapping,no holiday cards to send, no always hungry mooching relatives coming over expecting to stuff their maws with my vittles, no big meal planning, no cooking & no thus no complaints something was not just right, no lots of dirty dishes to wash, and folks Cancel Culture has not gone after this one, at least not yet. All I plan on doing for the day is watching its eponymous movie, one of the best ever. This is my favorite holiday and most folks do not even think of it as a holiday. I love it, how could I not!
All the best,
Glenn B
2 comments:
i hope the rat is right. he might be, as we had a 50 degree low last night. in february. the normal high is in the 30's.
I wrote this about 25 years ago, seems similar to your thoughts.
"If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
The half o’ winter’s come and mair;
If Candlemas Day be wet and foul,
The half o’ winter was gone at Youl."
Old English Rhyme
That’s February the second.
Midwinter’s day.
Ground Hog Day to you and me.
I’ve always had a fondness, even a weakness for Ground Hog Day.
An excellent type of holiday, the best kind. No gifts, no cards,
and outside of some goofy little town in Pennsylvania, no parades
or excessive drinking.
What are we to think of people who make up silly excuses for parties?
We have the lowly, burrowing, herbivorous marmot to thank for
this favorite of holidays.
A large rodent after all, there’s no other
word for it.
Except maybe woodchuck. You know;
How much wood,
could a woodchuck chuck?
If a woodchuck,
could chuck wood?
And of course the answer is;
A woodchuck, could chuck,
All the wood,
A woodchuck could.
If a woodchuck,
Could chuck wood.
But he can’t.
Wood aside, you would think that after so many years someone
would have turned this into a midwinter feast based on sausage
(ground hog). I wouldn’t mind that so much. I like sausage, I
like making it and eating it. Some baked beans, hot bread, real
coffee, apple pie. I’m happy.
But probably it would get out of hand, and be turned into a
Monday holiday and then lose all of its meaning. The way it is
now, it’s noticed and observed, by true groundhog purists who
don’t have any hidden ulterior motives or anything to sell, or
anything better to do.
Now that I’m thinking about it, who’s responsible for claiming
that a woodchuck would come out of his den on midwinter's day?
February second, or Candlemas (the Feast of the Purification of
the Virgin Mary) of course is midwinter’s day. At one time, when
such things mattered, midwinter’s day was considered a reference
point, and half of your hay and root crop and half of your firewood
should still be on hand. The weather on that day was thought to
be an indication of the length and severity of the remaining season.
Wishful thinking.
If the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow, we’ll have an early
spring.
If he does see his shadow we’ll have (oh no!) six more
weeks of winter.
Where do these people live? And have they looked at a calendar?
Six weeks from February the second is March the sixteenth; five
days before the first day of spring.
What are they thinking?
It doesn’t seem reasonable that woodchucks would leave their den
for any reason, regardless of the weather, even assuming they were
awake.
And did you know that woodchucks don’t even truly hibernate? They can’t make up their minds about whether they should sleep for five months or sit in a hole in the ground and look at the walls. No visitors, no food, no light. What to do!
They choose torpor. Torpor for cryin’ out loud, “a state of
inactivity with partial or total insensibility”.
A fancy word for laziness if you ask me. And we’re expected to believe they’ll predict the weather.
So if they can muster the energy to rouse themselves and decide whether or not they’re afraid of their own shadow; then what? a winter walk? I don’t think so.
There’s nothing to eat, no lawns to dig up, no bean or cabbage seedlings to destroy, no other woodchucks running around. It’s much more likely they’d be poking their pointed little heads out of the ground later in the spring, say around the beginning of April.
Hmm...
April fools day. Now there’s another great holiday. Practical
jokes and no hard feelings. A fools errand. Kind of like this little
note. Until now that is.
Seriously. I started this to remind myself that winter is half over
and things are looking up.
I hope you are too.
Len.
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