Groundhog Day
Cliff Claven mode
So, the nasty little rat saw it’s shadow, meaning six more weeks of “wintery mix” are in our future. Because when are groundhogs ever wrong?
Amirite?
But how did a groundhog get tied up with weather predictions and why on February 2nd? Well, let me put on my USPS jacket and Cliff Clavin mask and do some hogsplainin’.
The midpoints between the four seasonal equinoxes/solstices were important celebrations back in the pre-Christian day. What we call Halloween is the midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice; what we call May Day is midway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Likewise, our Groundhog Day is midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
Imbolic was the pre-Christian Celtic name for the festival between winter and spring and marked lambing season. Imbolc was also traditionally a time of weather divination, and the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens is probably the basis of our Groundhog Day. A Scottish Gaelic proverb about the day is:
“The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bríde,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.”
So, when Imbolic was supplanted by Candelmas Day (the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple), the older beliefs remained attached to the day, even though they no longer made sense:
“If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
There’ll be two winters in the year.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.”
Looks like 2015 will be a two-winter year. Stupid groundhog.
Last Updated on December 12, 2017 by admin
6 Comments
Thank you for that erudite explanation, Cliffy. Very good.
I understand that the Celtic day in question was held on “about Feb 1” – more or less a suggested time, depending on lambing, blackthorn growth, etc. The Christian festival that supplants the pagan festival in Ireland was St. Brigid’s day. (The goddess Brigid was supplanted by St. Brigid.)
Candlemas, on the other hand, originated in Italy as the 40th day of Christmas, at least by the early 4th century.
I’m kinda intrigued by these mid-season festivals. Mainly because they’re not halfway between the celestial events – all four occur on “about the 1st” of the mid-month. Must research more.
Cliff, jr.
Yeah, I was going to put in the part about the goddess Brigid being supplanted by St. Brigid, but it was already too Cliffie, and no one is going to read it as it is (except you, I guess).
The interesting thing is how the weather divination myth was glommed on to Candlemas, even though, as you point out, Candlemas had absolutely nothing to do with the mid-season festival.
Also, why is the mid-season festival that would fall on August 1st so completely ignored? Why do non-pagans hate the wheat festival?
Oops. By posting on your site, the provider got confused again and gave me control. Then cancelled your site. Blaming us.
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Per the 10 million word Webhostingpad click through that I apparently agreed to, the only person in the world who has no control over this site is me.
I can’t find anything about why Candlemas took on the weather divination customs. I’ll just spitball this idea: Candlemas is a big Catholic feast day, so it kind of overshadows St. Brigid – I can imagine the Irish combined the customs of the two days into the one, larger feast day (like how gift giving on St. Nicholas day moved to Christmas). Also, Candlemas marked the end of the Christmas liturgical season, which is a wintery season, and was the gateway to Septuagesima season, associated with the Springy Easter. Hence, Candlemas is associated with the transition from winter to Spring. Hatred of winter is universal among humanity and anticipating it’s early demise is also universal – I can imagine pairing winter prediction day with a happy feast like Candlemas. I’m still mystified why these four mid-seasonal festivals are not truly half-way between the solstices & equinoxes. And, as you said, why we don’t we have something today for August 1? I blame the French who declared the entire month of August a holiday.