Let’s not get nasty here. Groundhogs’ Day is not a stupid holiday. Far from stopping to celebrate it, we should elevate it to the rank of national holiday. (Also see here.)
For that matter, why would anyone choose to pay tribute to a machine that has the sole purpose of smoothing out ruts for ice skaters?
Jack Batty, you’re right we don’t celebrate it! We laugh at it! I just saw the movie on TV yesterday and I still have “Pennsylvania Polka” Etched in my brain. What an annoying song. What a great movie. Any way back to Groundhog day. It’s something to amuse us gullible and easy Americans between holidays. I really think it’s an annoying holiday. I can’t explain why, I just do.
Quote originally posted by Greg Charles:
For that matter, why would anyone choose to pay tribute to a machine that has the sole purpose of smoothing out ruts for ice skaters?
Because the name was funny when I thought of it. It sounds like a chessy magicians name. I’m not a magician.
P.S.
How do I quote?
Well, I celebrate, not the holiday, but the movie for a very simple reason:
My hubby and I had our first date the week after Valentines’s day in 1993. He cooked me dinner and then we went to see a movie. This was after the holiday blockbusters had passed from the screen and there was nothing that we wanted to see. Groundhog Day seemed the least lame of the choices. So we saw it. We joke to this day that “I Got You, Babe” is Our Song. He says it’s amazing that he took me to such a lame movie (sorry for those of you who actually liked it) and I went out with him again anyway.
Almost eight years later (2/20/93 was the date), I’m still glad I did. Happy sigh…
And leave us not forget the all-time great groundhog song, by the immortal [ahem, ahem] ELVIS…
“You ain’t nothin’ but a groundhog,
Crying all the time…
You ain’t never seen your shadow and you ain’t no friend of mine…”
If ELVIS celebrated it, I celebrate it, simple as that.
Along the lines of poly’s answer, I like to “celebrate” it as a cross-quarter day by making a point of being aware of the changing of the seasons. In fact, I just posted a thread over in MPSIMS encouraging folk to do likewise.
This made me laugh so hard that I’ve decided to serve a special Groundhog’s Day Dinner this year. My 6-year-old son will be tickled pink.
I need some ideas on the menu, though. I was thinking something vertical that will (hopefully) cast a shadow. Any ideas on what I should serve?
FTR, in modern Wiccan traditions, the “cross quarter” day is called Imbolc, and signifies the full recovery of the Goddess following the birth of the God.
“The onset of February brings midwinter holidays in many cultures, with feasting and rites of purification to celebrate the returning light and the promise of spring…”
"Imbolc, held on February 2, is the sabbat of sacred fire. It is the first light sabbat that ends the Holly King’s reign and invites the goddess of spring to return…
"The sabbat is very home-centered, with cleansing and purification rites conducted for each room in preparation for the birth of spring… It is a time for reassessment, redirection, and self-blessing…
“Groundhog Day: Just as in the Pagan and Christian traditions, if this day dawns sunny, there will be six more weeks of winter, but if it dawns overcast, surely spring lies just around the corner.”
See? Like Christmas, Easter and several other holidays, this is yet another Pagan remnant modernized into a Hallmark Holiday.
Happy Groundhog Day!
And Blessed Imbolc, to my Pagan friends!