Groundhog Day: What's Up with That, Anyway?

Groundhog Day. Very influential movie-television shows ranging from Xena to X-Files have adopted its premise for classic episodes-but as a holiday or even celebratory occasion, it's not exactly up there with the big dogs. In fact, Groundhog Day is really not much more popular than Arbor Day amongst the common folk. And yet, every February 2, the twenty-four hour cable news channels and the morning shows on all the major networks provide coverage of the event as if it were...well...actual news. Of course, I guess that covering the appearance of a groundhog as an indicator of future weather events is no more ridiculous than the way CNBC treats the release of the gross domestic product as an indication of the actual state of the economy.

So, what is the deal with Groundhog Day? Why are we annually treated to the pomp and circumstance surrounding a rodent with the unlikely name of Phil? Well, as is so often the case, blame the Germans. A subtitle for a documentary about Groundhog Day might well be titled The Americanization of the Badger. You see, the reason we celebrate Groundhog Day as an arbiter of spring's approach is because the area of Pennsylvania in which Punxsutawney Phil is a contemporary hero is not, alas, overrun with badgers. And it was the badger-which is, let's face it, a much cooler animal than the groundhog can ever hope to be-that was the Jim Cantore of 16^th century German farmers. (Come to think of it, Jim Cantore kind of resembles a badger, doesn't he, baby!) Way back before the Weather Channel was invented, German farmers counted on their badger to make an appearance. Should the day be sunny, the folklore goes that the badger would see his shadow and get so frightened that he would crawl back into his little hibernation area and sleep for another six weeks. If this happened and the badger did crawl back for some more sleep, these German farmers would not plant crops for those six weeks because it meant more winter weather lay in store.

Upon the beginning of Germanic immigration into America, many of them decided to settle in Pennsylvania area, specifically along the Allegheny plateau. The first winter presented a problem: no badgers. Lots and lots of groundhogs, though. And so because of the absence of badgers in the land of the Steelers, these German immigrants seized upon the plentiful groundhog as a substitute. Interestingly, however, is that if these Germans farmers had moved westward or northward or southward, depending upon where they ended up, we could very well be celebrating Groundhog Day as early as mid-January or as late as March. The reason Groundhog Day is celebrated on February 2 is because the Allegheny groundhogs appeared around then.

So why does the groundhog peek his head out? It is to look for his shadow and decide for us whether we'll have an early spring or late winter? Well, not so much. The actual reason for whether a groundhog makes the decision to stay out or go back to sleep has to do with the two primary motivations without us all: eating and sexing it up. If after a long hibernation the groundhog is still a little loopy, not quite out of it, his belly still full and his sex drive needing some groundhog Viagra, he will go back to bed. On the other hand, if he's feeling a little peckish and has maybe had some particularly vivid sex dreams, he will stay out in search of food and a mate. It all really has very little to do with weather in general and nothing to do with spotting his shadow or not. So, as you watch the news teams treating Groundhog Day like it's actually worth covering, just keep in mind that all those reporters are waiting to find out if Phil is hungry and horny or not.