I guess he can go back to chucking wood now. The big moment for groundhogs is over for the year.
It’s not really a surprise that any groundhog would stay out of his burrow on a day like this. It’s pouring out there. If you live in a hole in the ground, it’s very likely to get wet. Maybe even flood. No self respecting groundhog would put himself through that. Shadow or not.
But the groundhog day thing actually seems to predate the use of groundhogs as prognosticators. It actually is part of Candlemas.
There is a rhyme that goes along with it:
If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter will not come again.
There are several variations on the rhyme, but they add up to the same thing. If we get bad weather on February 2nd, it will start to warm up quicker. No groundhog involved.
In fact, there are stories that the whole thing originally involved hedgehogs. When people moved to North America, they noticed that there was an extreme shortage of hedgehogs, so they switched to groundhogs. But still, the critters are just for show. You can perform the same ritual by looking out the window.
And since it is now Candlemas, you can take your Christmas decorations down now. For some, it is the official end of the Christmas season.
There were also pancakes involved at some point. I know. There is a pancake day, but can you have too many pancakes? Maybe I should start looking into some of these old traditions more.
All I know is groundhogs in a hole in the ground will likely get wet on a day like this. I’m ready for winter to fade to a memory already. And I really could have used a big stack of pancakes after I got finished shoveling that heavy, wet snow this morning.
