Fun fact: Groundhog Day is directly, if not weirdly tied to the Christian liturgical season!

The Christian year begins in Advent, with the anticipation of the birth of Christ. The liturgical calendar holds holy days and seasons marking the Christ story, incorporating the life of Christ and the saints into the every day life of every day people.  The birth of Christ is celebrated on December 25 at Christmas. January 6 marks Epiphany, the visitation of the magi to the Holy Family. What you may not know is that February 2 marks the Feast of Candlemas, the 40th day ending the Christmas/Epiphany seasons, celebrating Mary’s ritual purification and the presentation of Jesus in the temple according to Mosaic practices. This story is found in Luke 2:22-38, and includes the beloved stories of both Simeon and Anna blessing and prophesying over the Christ child.

European Christians began associating Christian holidays and liturgical time with long-standing pre-Christian practices.  Once such instance is the timing of Candlemas as a halfway marker between the winter and spring equinox.

If Maries purifieng daie,
Be cleare and bright with sunnie raie,
The frost and cold shal be much more,
After the feast than was before.
(Reginald Scot, 1584)

This is also the time of year hibernating animals may emerge and decide if they’re ready to come out and play. Germans looked to the bear, and then the badger, to predict the weather for the remaining winter period, referring to Candlemas as Badger Day. By the time they immigrated to the Americas, the Pennsylvania Dutch were looking for the emergence of the American groundhog on Candlemas. The rest, as they say, is history.

A Liturgy For the Blessed Feast of Groundhogmas

Look kindly, Groundhog, with prediction precise / Oh blessed marmot banish winter’s ice / See thou thy shadow and bring us luck / Reveal the wood that thou wouldst chuck.