Some of our holidays have quite a lot of history behind them, and Groundhog Day is one of my favorites in this regard. I probed the pagan history of Yule a few years ago, so now I think it’s only fair to peer briefly into the past of Groundhog Day, earlier known as Candlemas or St. Brigid’s Day, and before that as Imbolc, which comes to us from the ancient Celts. The name Brigid has its roots in Celtic paganism, with the Goddess Brigid, also known as Bride. As a goddess she had three faces, each having to do with fire, according to the web page, Brigid: Goddess or Saint?
- Brigid, the ‘Fire of the Hearth’, was the goddess of fertility, family, childbirth and healing.
- Brigid, the ‘”Fire of the Forge’, was like the Greek goddess Athena, a patroness of the crafts (especially weaving, embroidery, and metalsmithing), and a goddess who was concerned with justice and law and order.
- Brigid, the ‘Fire of Inspiration’, was the muse of poetry, song history and the protector of all cultural learning.
(read more at Brigid: Goddess or Saint?)
According to Wikipedia, Imbolc:
“is traditionally a time of weather prognostication, and the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens is perhaps a precursor to the North American Groundhog Day. A Scottish Gaelic proverb about the day is:
Thig an nathair as an toll
La donn Bride,
Ged robh tri traighean dh’ an t-sneachd
Air leachd an lair.“The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.”“Fire and purification are an important aspect of this festival.”
(read Wikipedia article)
The verse quoted above, and in the Wikipedia article, is from Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations, Ortha Nan Gaidheal, Volume I by Alexander Carmichael (1900), and can be found on line at Sacred Texts Archive, where you can read even more about Bride.
Then there’s the perfect non-religious Groundhog Day celebration for our times, which is simply to enjoy the Bill Murray comedy by that title. That’s how I like to celebrate it.
You mean Groundhog Day, the movie, and the story of getting caught up in a time loop, wasn’t religious?
Didn’t the android Data, in Star Trek TNG, the episode apparently titled Cause and Effect, also get caught in a similar repeating time loop, also disastrous, and eventually sent a message to himself through time by somehow shuffling the cards non-randomly (3333)?
Another fantastic story, though slightly harder to pull into the Groundhog Day topic. Perhaps those two stories were essentially the same, except for the theme or template, and costumes used.
I wonder if royalties went to the same writer in each separate case? Or if more than one writer, or team of writers (sorry, don’t know how TV writing works), were mirroring each other in a shadowy game of one-up–ship.
And of course, the groundhog popped his head out of his burrow, lo … looked and beheld not only his own shadow, but the many shadows of reality, mirroring light playing with dark through its looking-glass lens. The time loop repeated yet again.
Yes, interesting. I was trying to sort this stuff out the other day. I enjoy Groundhog Day, even if, in the northeast, there are always six weeks more of winter, no matter what he says. The movie is one of the greatest sf movies of all time, of course.
Thanks for the history. It was very interesting. But in recent times I find that no matter is the groundhog sees his shadow, we still get 6 more weeks of winter.
Of all the fun/funky “holidays” Groundhog Day is one that I never notice or observe. Not any more, anyway. When I lived in Connecticut, it was always a topic of conversation, speculation, and comment-maybe because the weather in Connecticut was so changeable, you never knew when spring had truly arrived, or were you just having an especially slushy winter. Don’t miss that part of New England at all, at all.
Fun post - thanks! Like Eric, Groundhog Day is my all time most favorite movie. So rich with life lessons.
So what did that little groundhog have to say about us? I hope winter is over now.