Andy_Johnson's Blog

Yesterday, Punxsatawney Phil saw his shadow and according to legend 6 more weeks of winter will follow. Of course, now we have more sophisticated ways of predicting the weather but it is entertaining to watch the furry little animal look for his shadow.

How did this tradition begin? There used to be a holiday called Candlemas on February 2 which was celebrated in Europe hundreds of years ago. The Europeans had a superstition that if a badger saw his shadow on Candlemas there would be 6 more weeks of winter. Of course, since Europe is in the middle latitudes it didn't really apply to locations farther south such as Florida. On Candlemas people would pray for mild weather for the rest of the winter. There was a much colder period of time called the Maunder Minimum when temperatures were much colder around the globe from about 1645 to 1715. After 1715 the trend of general global warming began. In general, the colder periods in history were associated with more human suffering and less food supply.

When the Europeans came to the New World, they could not find any badgers. So they used the next best rodent, the native groundhog. So actually, Groundhog Day should be called Badger Day.