Talk:Groundhog Day
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Historical quote cites a future publication: Someone in 1841 is citing a book from 1974. My guess is that either a) there is a missing close quote after 'moderate' and open quote after '1974', or b) someone added the 'published in 1974' without realizing it was in the middle of a quote, or c) there is a typo in 1974, which should read 1774, 974, etc. I'm striking the second half of the quote, if someone can resolve this they can restore it.
- The reference was made Feb. 4, 1841 in Morgantown, Berks County (Pennsylvania) storekeeper James Morris' diary..."Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate. According to the Works of Carmi (published in 1974) the groundhog is psychologically shaken when it sees its shadow, its lack of shadow is a blanket of security and when a groundhog sees it- he is determined to hide for 6 weeks"
I'm not too sure about the Scottishness of the couplet. Mainly because it's not written in Scots as I would expect this type of folk weather prophecy to be. Rather than saying...
- If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
- there'll be two winters in the year.
... a genuine Scottish couplet would say something more like...
- Gin Candlemas be bricht and clear,
- ye'll see twa winters in ae year.
It seems more likely to me that it's English but perhaps others know different -- Derek Ross
- This article was from a US POV. Before I rewrote the intro (badly, I admit) it leaped in with "Groundhog day has its origins in .." without actually saying what Groundhog day actually is. sigh... -- Tarquin
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[edit] Scottish Couplet ? ??
Groundhog day is a Pennsylvania Dutch creation. According to this article it comes from a Scottish Couplet ! That is laughable and sad. Stettlerj 16:55, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Hedgehog Day
I added a comment about Hedgehog Day. The article claimed that Groundhog Day came from Candlemas. That is very odd since Candlemas has little to do with predicting the remaining length of winter. It merely falls on the same date. Hedgehog Day began in ancient Rome, falling on Februa 2 (February 2), and entailed checking to see if a hedgehog saw its shadow when it emerged from its den. If so, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. It became Groundhog Day in the Americas because there were no hedgehogs to check on. I feel that it may be best to emphasize Hedgehog Day and note that Candlemas is merely a coincedental holiday. Kainaw 20:16, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Edit Links Section
I don't think that we need to have all of the external links that we have at the bottom. It would be great if someone would go through and evaluate all of the links for usefulness of necessity to be linked. I would also like to see a link to the Groundhog Day Birthday Club website. For example, I doubt that the article on Groundhog day and Gardening is something we need to include. I mean, this is an encyclopedia, afterall, and not a random posting board of anything relevant we find.
[edit] Revised Article
I have revised this article, just sectioning it out really, and deleting some links. Hopefully it looks more streamlined and less congested. I also added a picture of a groundhog, I hope to be able to get permission to put up a picture of Punxsutawny Phil. If there's any problems with these edits please let me know. --ImmortalGoddezz 21:02, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Do you guys think that it is important to list the recent predictions? After about a month, the prediction is useless. For instance, do you remember if last winter was long or short? Probably not, so the prediction has no importance after the fact. --ʀ6ʍɑʏ89 01:04, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
- It might not be vitally important, but I think for many it is an interesting thing to read about. -ImmortalGoddezz 02:12, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
- Some people may remember "hey, it's Groundhog Day" and go to this wiki article, not knowing what Phil predicted. It would be good to have it, at least for the next six weeks of winter that we are supposed to be getting. Ha. We havn't even had any snow here in Philly since mid-December.--TexasDex 06:50, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Unreferenced Conjecture about origins =
The closing paragraph which offers a explanation the motivation for folk tradition as simply a joke has many problems:
"In western countries in the Northern Hemisphere the official first day of Spring is about six weeks after Groundhog Day, on March 20 or 21. About 1,000 years ago, before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar when the date of the equinox drifted in the Julian calendar, the spring equinox fell on March 16 instead. This was exactly six weeks after February 2. Assuming that the equinox marked the first day of spring in certain medieval cultures, as it does now in western countries, Groundhog Day occurred exactly six weeks before spring. Therefore, if the groundhog saw his shadow on Groundhog Day there would be six more weeks of winter. If he didn't, there would be 42 more days of winter. In other words, the Groundhog Day/Hedgehog Day tradition may have begun as a bit of folk humor."
1. This is an Encyclopedia article, so it should not propose new theories.
2. The theory makes it a joke that 6 weeks is actually pretty close to 1/8 of a year (42 days vs. 44+) while a simplier explanation is that the farmers rule of thumb was NOT offering absolute accuracy, just wheather Winter would last all the way to the Spring Equinox or end sooner. In fact, the 6 weeks might be a late modification of tradition which original was thought of in terms of 1/8ths.
3. The discussion of when actual vs. calendrical of Equinox (earlier or March 21) requires knowing the locale of the origin of the tale and how the teller of the tale was marking Spring equinox. The discussion further hedges by offer a match date somewhere in medieval period as the calendar drifted out of the seasons. The problem is tradition got repeated in many parts of Europe, which suggests it has more value than a joke about a tautology.
I suggest throwing that whole paragraph out.
For those who don't under the idea of what is being predicted: Clear in some latitudes is associated with cold (more middle continent USA midwest or Pennsylvania than some coastal cloudy area) days and nights are not as cold.
The claimed predicitive value of the observation is that if clouds have already arrived for cool but not cold days spring is already thought to be on its way.
For example, here in Seattle in the winter of 20005-2006 the weather finally broke and the sun came out 3+ months of overcast with much rain; thus, in this area, the change in weather patterns is opposite they idea of Groundhog Day.
The note about Candlemas "When Christianity came into being, the formerly pagan observance was called "Candlemas Day."" might better be stated as "Eventually during the Christian Era, February 2nd additionally was celebrated as Candlemas, based on February being 40 days after Christmas."
Note Candlemas is in wikipedia, so can be linked from here. The distance to Easter mentioned in the article is incorrect in nearly any year and calculating Easter was a well understood idea, so we should find "40 days to Easter" idea very suspect.
Apparently the opportunity to observe animal behavior did not leave the European tradition, so suggestions the days name changed as opposed to gaining additional traditions and anmes, would need additional supporting evidence. We apparently have with continuity with old German traditions as the diary references from Pennsylvania attest.
"whiskery waddler."
What the heck?
- Seconded on the motion to delete! It doesn't even properly explain what "six weeks" and "42 days" even properly refer to. Differences in the two calendars?
[edit] Prognosticating groundhogs list
In an effort to keep this section clear and free of the (dozen or more) groundhogs that was initially on this list, please refrain from adding any groundhog that does not have his or her own wikipedia page. There is a link to other prognosticating groundhogs for this very reason, to keep the section clear of a dozen red links and over all uncluttered appearance of the page. Thanks. --ImmortalGoddezz 19:26, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Don't Leave One Out!
I don't know if y'all are familiar with General Beauregaurd Lee, but he is very much the South's resident groundhog. Though recently retired, his predictions are very much adhered to here in Georgia and there should be a profile on him!
