February 2, 2023 … Thursday night (Groundhog Day … stupid rodent predicted six more weeks of winter!)
And so I start off on a lovely note.
I am one of those people, crazy perhaps, that thinks that the celebrity and hype of Punxsutawney Phil – the prognosticating groundhog – is a fun thing. Or used to be a fun thing. As I get older and the winters (seemingly get longer … as in January having 14,387 days), I dare say I’m not much of a fan anymore!
MORE winter?! Oh, Phil! How could you do this to us????? I was really counting on you!
I am an animal lover – from birth, I might say. Anything slimy, scaly, furry or feathered … I’d love to hold – at least once in my lifetime (well, except for a tarantula, snake or one of those giant, hissing cockroaches). And so it goes for the famed groundhog. They are just so darn cute! I’d love to hold one, assured it wouldn’t eat my face off … but, where does one go to hold a groundhog?
Maybe to Punxsutawney, PA … where the weather forecasting rodent resides. (Although he really lives, not out in some forest, but in the library building.) I don’t think anyone can really get near “Phil” unless one is in the Groundhog Club (yes – there actually is a Groundhog Club – consisting of a dozen or so lucky members who take care of Phil year-round!) and one super-lucky member who is the “handler” of the furry guy gets to hold him during the ceremony. But, still, it would be exciting to hold one of those chunky, furry bodies. Are they soft? Coarse? Oily? Do they have that mousey-smell to them or are they more like a dog? I’d like to find out first hand!
The infamous movie Groundhog Day – was playing today … over and over and over again. I laughed about that. If you haven’t seen the movie – you need to. It’s where character Phil Connors gets “stuck” in Punxsutawney forever and a day before he figures out his life. And fyi – someone calculated out how long he was actually stuck there reliving that day over and over again and it was something like 33 years!
Anyway, a million years before that movie came out, I was a kid, and I’d watch the celebration on some morning TV program and marvel about it. And every year before Feb 2nd’s arrival, I’d dream of going to PA to be part of the celebration. Every year I’d wonder what it would be like to go? Well, being young and not having the means to do so, I never went. And back then, it would have been me and another 57 people. It was sweet, quiet, unassuming. Today it is insanity run amok with 10,000 to 20,000 people attending the festivities. Oh my and no thanks!
Sources of all things groundhog say that the origin of this weather-predicting rodent was brought to the States by Germans settling in PA (who also brought with them the lore of Christmas trees and the Easter bunny). In Germany, however, it was either a badger or a hedgehog that was the forecasting animal.
Since badgers and hedgehogs were less plentiful (non-existent/not native to the area) than groundhogs in the mid 1880’s in Pennsylvania, the animal was changed to the groundhog (apparently there was a plethora of them). And while one might think the groundhog (marmota monax) is like the prairie dog in its existence, it is the most solitary of the marmot species. There might be a lot of them in one area – but they don’t necessarily have any organized social structure and are not reliant on each other. They really are just big squirrels (without the tails) and can weigh up to 15 pounds. They are hibernators and are dormant for months – usually emerging from their dens in February (hence, the timing for this tradition). Groundhogs only live a mere 3-6 years. A group of them is called a coterie and babies are called kits. In various parts of the country, they are also known as woodchucks, whistle-pigs (for the sounds they make) and land beavers.
So, how did this all get started? An early diary entry, from 1840, has writings about a weather-forecasting rodent … however, most people think the official ceremony started in 1887 when people gathered at Gobbler’s Knob to see when Spring would arrive via their tried and (not so) true weather forecasting rodent tradition.
The whole thing is as such: if the groundhog comes out of his burrows and it’s a clear day/so that the sun is out and he sees his shadow … he is surprised and frightened and scampers back into his hole – meaning that there is surely at least six more weeks of winter. If it’s a cloudy day and he doesn’t see his shadow … then it’s an early Spring.
This is all backwards to ME … because, if I were a groundhog and I woke up from my nice, cozy den and looked outside and saw that it was sunny out – I’d for sure say, “HOORAY! Spring must be right around the corner! Yipee! I’m going to go find me some clover.” And if it was gray/cloudy – I’d emerge and see the sky and scoot right back into my nest of leaves and say, “Oh, the hell with it/it’s still winter/ I’m going back to bed!”
Anyway, I’m not a groundhog. Pity. Cuz I’d like my prognostications better!
In any case – the stupid rodent saw his shadow today and oh, surprise surprise – we are in for more winter. Like we needed a groundhog to tell us that! It was -9° here over the weekend and more snow. I don’t think most of us need a rodent telling us that we are still in winter’s vise grip!
In any case, rodent or no rodent (there’s a weather predicting white squirrel in NC and a lobster named Lucy in Nova Scotia) … Come On, Spring!