The Po Show

Damn Rodent

Well, Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow, so it's 6 more weeks of winter. Yesterday there was a huge storm through PA, so he wouldn't have even come out of his burrow. But today the sun was shining, and he made his prediction (according to his handler; how do we know that guy isn't in the pocket of the mob?).

Wasn't this supposed to be a La Nina year? Wasn't it supposed to be a colder than average November and December, and a warmer than average January and February? The cold Nov. and Dec. we had, but Jan. sure wasn't very warm. And if it has to be this freaking cold, the least we could get is some nice pretty snow. I can't believe that they had far more snow in southern CA (up in the mountains anyway) than we've had here, with our puny little dustings that then wash away in the rain.

Another funny thing about Groundhog Day. Matthew wanted to know the origins of Groundhog Day, and how long people have been celebrating it, so we did a little web searching. We found out that one of the earliest references in PA to the groundhog coming out and seeing his shadow, as a predictor of the coming of spring, was in 1841 (which made Matthew contend, "So it must not be the original groundhog! Even if it went through a serious mutation, which I doubt, there's no way it could live that long!" :D). However, since Feb. 2 comes exactly 6 weeks before the day that was the official start of spring on the Julian calendar, before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, that may be part of the origin of the whole thing.

Anyway, this led Matthew to muse that the origins of holidays may have roots in truth or myth. "You know, like the birth of Baby J....," he stumbled. "Jesus?," I supplied. "Yeah," he said, "you never know if what started a holiday really happened or not."

I commented that a lot of people probably wouldn't put the origins of Christmas and Groundhog Day on the same level of uncertainty, and didn't know what else to say. "Some people believe it happened, and some don't," Ross added helpfully. Oh man, his dad would have a major conniption fit over this whole conversation, but that's a whole nuther story.

In any event, enjoy the rest of the winter!