GROUNDHOG DAY

ONCE MORE, here in the United States, especially eastern USA, we have a special focus on February 2nd...Groundhog Day. Since the winter solstice (usually around December 21), the shortest day of the year, or mid-winter, the day-light hours have been extending. Paradoxically, the days have been getting colder. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we begin to wonder how much longer the winter days will persist. We long for Spring and look for signs of Winter's ending.

About this time, the groundhog or woodchuck stirs from hibernation and pokes its nose from out of its hole and has a look about. According to the legend, if the sky is clear, it will see its shadow and there will be left only six weeks of winter. If it is cloudy, the wintry conditions are likely to persist much longer and the little chaps will return to hibernation

Americans, neither Native Americans nor the more recent inhabitants, did not invent the Groundhog Day myth. This goes back to Roman times and continued into more modern times in Germany. The first weeks of February have ever been linked to weather forecasting. Good weather with clear skies has been believed to predict an early Spring. In Europe, this is about the time that the hedgehogs make their appearance from hibernation. German immigrants brought with them the myth but not the hedgehogs. The animal they found most resembling the hedgehog and which hibernated was the groundhog. Lots of German folk immigrated into Pennsylvania and it is the little town of Punxsutawney makes much of this day and has an apparently everlasting groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil who lives in a hole adjacent to the local library and who is the focus of the annual celebrations on the previous evening. Quite a few states have similar weather predicting heroes; for instance, in Alaska, they have Marmot Day (groundhogs are a form of marmot).

Groundhog Day became well-know through the film of that name. The storyline is about a TV feature crew that go to Punxsutawney to document the festival. The lead is a particularly obnoxious fellow who finds himself condemned to wake up in seemingly endless Groundhog Days, each of which reveals some aspect of his appalling personality. Through this arduous journey, he eventually discovers a better self and is released from his pilgrimage. 'Hooray', we all say at the end. I love the movie and have seen it as many times as there are Groundhog Days in the film.

I first heard of Groundhog Day while living in Australia and exchanging tapes with Sandy, later to be my wife. One recording was of a bunch of her friends in a bar, listening to a joke told by Emily, one of the group. The punch line involved a reference to Groundhog Day; so funny as to be drowned out by the loud laughter of the appreciative listeners. It took me weeks to discover what the punchline was and then, living in a country that had no groundhogs and where February 2nd occurred during the hottest weather, found I could not 'get' how it might be funny.

From time to time, we might wish that someone of our acquaintance could have such an experience...one that removes them from us until they return, suitably mended in their ways; or even wish such a redemptive experience for ourselves.

Of late, I have found myself wishing this for certain politicians!