from Worldofceleb.com
Date of Celebration : February 2nd, 2008.
Groundhog Day is a
traditional festival celebrated in the United States and Canada
on February 2. It is a cross-quarter day, midway between the
Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox. It is also a legend that
traverses centuries, its origins clouded in the mists of time
with ethnic cultures and animals awakening on specific dates.
Myths such as this tie our present to the distant past when
nature did, indeed, influence our lives. It is the day that the
Groundhog comes out of his hole after a long winter sleep to
look for his shadow.
Groundhog Day grew out of a mainly German superstition that if a
hibernating animal casts a shadow February 2 -- the Christian
holiday of Candlemas -- winter will last another six weeks. If
no shadow is seen, legend says spring will be early. On 2nd
February, if the groundhog comes out of his burrow and sees his
shadow, then it means winter is gonna stay for some more time!.
Well, we can't tell you what the great groundhog's gonna predict this
year on Groundhog's Day. If the groundhog sees its shadow, he regards it
as an omen of six more weeks of bad weather and returns to his hole.
If the day is cloudy and, hence, shadowless, he takes it as a sign of
spring and stays above ground. The groundhog tradition stems from
similar beliefs associated with Candlemas Day and the days of early
Christians in Europe, and for centuries the custom was to have the
clergy bless candles and distribute them to the people. Even then, it
marked a milestone in the winter and the weather that day was important.
In traditional weather lore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on
this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy,
winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow because the
weather is bright and clear, it will be frightened and run back into its
hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks.
In contemporary popular use, it may more often refer to a situation that
keeps repeating itself (i.e., déjà vu), due to the influence of the film
Groundhog Day.
