If
ground-hog day was bright and fair,
The beast came forth, but not to stay;
His shadow turned him to his lair,
Where six weeks more, he dormant lay
Secure in subterranean hold—
So wondrous weatherwise was he—
Against six weeks of ice and cold,
Which, very certain, there would be...
The beast came forth, but not to stay;
His shadow turned him to his lair,
Where six weeks more, he dormant lay
Secure in subterranean hold—
So wondrous weatherwise was he—
Against six weeks of ice and cold,
Which, very certain, there would be...
~H.L. Fisher, "Popular Superstitions," Olden Times: or, Pennsylvania Rural Life, Some Fifty Years Ago, and Other Poems, 1888
Well, then— it’s today,
and it’s all right if we missed it. GROUNDHOG DAY is for many young’uns an excellent Bill Murry movie, played
over and over since its release in 1993. But the odd Farmer’s Almanac-like custom is much older, and not less bizarre
when analyzed. Does the groundhog see its shadow? Six more weeks of winter?
Heh?
I think of it this way—
the weather is uncontrollable. We want control. Give us some grounding from where
we will navigate.
But I like to leave this
post with a much more spunky quotation that should take us through the next
six/eight/ten/please no more weeks:
“It's a holiday entirely based on the power
of a psychic rodent. If that isn't the epitome of awesome, I don't know what
is.”
~Flying
LlamaFish, "7 Reasons Groundhog Day is the Ultimate Holiday," 2010,
PunIntended.com
