Groundhog Day 2022: everything you didn't know about this holiday

Despite its funny name, Groundhog Day is a holiday with a long history. For the first time it began to be celebrated in ancient Rome, however, then a hedgehog was used instead of a marmot. The meaning of the ceremony was exactly the same as now: by the behavior of the animal, people tried to predict the weather and the timing of the onset of spring. They did it strictly on a certain day, which corresponds to the current February 2. Surprisingly, this date coincides with the Christian holiday of the Presentation of the Lord, if we celebrate it according to the old style. The Slavs believed that on this day spring meets winter for the first time.

Groundhog Day: the history and traditions of the holiday

The Day of the Hedgehog, which was celebrated annually in Rome, was transformed into the Day of the Badger in Central and Northern Europe. This February 2 holiday was popular in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It is believed that it was the German colonists who brought the custom of predicting spring according to the behavior of an animal to the United States. That's just the main "meteorologist" here was not a badger, but a North American marmot.

Initially, the behavior of the animals was monitored in the wild. The groundhog had to be carefully awakened and waited for him to emerge from the hole. If at that moment he saw his own shadow, he got scared and hid back: this was considered a bad omen and promised another 42 days of cold weather. If the weather was cloudy (and the observers sat quietly), the groundhog crawled out of the hole and began to look around: this meant that the animal senses the imminent arrival of spring, and you can prepare for warming.

In 1886, in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, they decided to turn the event into a little show. Exactly at 7.25 am on February 2, with a crowd of spectators, a tame marmot named Big Phil was taken out of the hole here. It is not known whether his first "public" weather prediction came true, but since then the groundhog himself has become a real star, the city of Punxsutawney proudly calls itself the World Weather Center, and Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada is considered national holiday.

How Groundhog Day is celebrated in the US and Canada

In fact, groundhog predictions are not particularly accurate. For example, Big Phil, according to the National Center for Environmental Information, over the past 10 years gave a true forecast only 40% of the time. Most often, he predicts the continuation of winter, but there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this: an incredible crowd of spectators gathers for the holiday in Punxsutawney every year. It takes a certain courage not to hide in a hole with so many fans. And marmots, and even half-awake, cannot boast of such a character trait.

Nevertheless, Americans love Groundhog Day very much. So much so that Phil has many competitors. The most famous of them are Willy from the village of Wiarton in Canada, Chuck from the Staten Island Zoo and Buckeye Chuck from Ohio. Whatever the weather forecasters predict, the United States and Canada celebrate this day very noisily. Usually, various shows and competitions, concerts and street food festivals are organized in places where marmots are observed, and the event itself is necessarily broadcast by local TV channels. Many guests from Ukraine say that Groundhog Day is similar to ours in terms of the scale of celebration here. Maslenitsa.

How Groundhog Day is celebrated in Ukraine

In our country, Groundhog Day is not celebrated on such a grand scale. However, Ukraine has its own meteorologists: the groundhog Timka from Kharkov and the groundhogs Marusya and Misha from Lvov. Interestingly, this year Marusya and Misha have already predicted the onset of spring - they woke up on January 5, but did not get out of the mink, but simply “unearthed” the entrance for ventilation. However, after that, the animals again hibernated, so we expect them to correct the prediction.

As for folk traditions, a Christian holiday falls on February 2 according to the old style (Gregorian calendar). Presentation of the Lord. The ancient Slavs believed that on this day spring meets winter for the first time and tries its hand. If a thaw occurs at the Meeting, it means that spring is stronger and will soon defeat winter. If there are frosts, winter will be delayed for another two months. If it snows, the spring will be protracted and rainy.

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