Come and listen to a story 'bout a groundhog, Phil
He sleeps throughout the winter to escape the bitter chill
And then one day on February Two
He's up from the ground, and here's what he will do
Open his eyes - Look around - Prognosticate

Well the next thing y'know, ol' Phil's a media star
Camera crews and newsmen come from near and far
To Punxsutawney town in the middle of PA
To determine whether winter will go or will it stay
Six more weeks - Maybe longer - In Minnesota

A shadow means a longer nap for Phil and all his kin
They begin to huddle up and start a new sleep-in
But you and me we just can't sleep throughout the winter here
So have a heapin' hopin' the shadow won't appear.

Ahhh...the things that arrive unbidden in my email. Some are totally useless; some are scary; some are highly entertaining. This text has recently "made the rounds." I enjoyed it and hope you did too.

The History Of Groundhog Day / Candlemas Day

Groundhogs, also known as woodchucks, are members of the rodent family. They live most of their lives underground and hibernate each winter for about 5 months.

Like so many other holidays, the roots of Groundhog Day go way back to ancient times. In ancient Ireland, the pagan holiday Imbolc was celebrated halfway between the Winter Solstice (around December 21, the first day of winter) and the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox (around March 21, the first day of spring). Superstition suggested that fair weather on this day foretold a cold and stormy second half of winter. This holiday became known as "Lā Fhčill Brėghde nan coinnlean" which translates as "The feast day of Brėghde of the candles". Bėghde is Bridget of Kildare, the Celtic goddess of fire and the hearth.

Early Christian missionaries wanted to sway pagans towards the Church, so Bridget was sainted and her feast became a time when the candles to be used throughout the year were blessed by the Church. They were distributed to the people in the dark of winter. A lighted candle was placed in each window of the home, where they served as talismans or protectors from all sorts of disasters. The day's weather continued to be important because the early Christians still believed that if the sun came out February 2nd, halfway between winter and spring, it meant six more weeks of wintry weather.

As the following old verse illustrates, the early Christians maintained the superstition about predicting the weather:

"If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again."

In North America, the Native Americans in the Delaware area held a belief about ancient creatures living in Mother Earth who eventually emerged to hunt and live as men. Their ancestors were called 'wojak' which European settlers later pronounced as 'woodchuck.' This belief in an ancient race and an old Pennsylvania Dutch superstition of predicting the weather based on whether or not a groundhog saw his shadow on Candlemas merged to become Groundhog Day.

In central Pennsylvania in 1887, Clymer H. Freas, editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit Newspaper was inspired by a local tradition of hunting and barbecuing groundhogs and dubbed the participants the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.  Year after year the story was embellished and Punxsutawney Phil became the official weather forecaster for the nation.