Six more weeks of winter!

[mereilin]

Today I learned that the venerable rodent of lore, Punxsutawney Phil, is forcibly pulled from his hibernation on February second by a man in a top hat. So much for my childhood notions of the little guy tottering up for a peek at the weather conditions before deciding whether it's really time to wake up.

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. - Brace yourself for more wintry weather. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Saturday, leading the groundhog to forecast six more weeks of winter.

The rodent was pulled from his stump [emphasis added] by members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle, top-hat- and tuxedo-wearing businessmen who carry out the tradition.

Each Feb. 2, thousands of people descend on Punxsutawney, a town of about 6,100 people some 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, to celebrate what had essentially been a German superstition.

The tradition is that if a hibernating animal sees a shadow on Feb. 2 — the Christian holiday of Candlemas — winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says spring will come early.

That was the forecast from Gen. Beauregard Lee, Punxsutawney Phil's counterpart in Lilburn, Ga. Beau did not see his shadow Saturday morning at the Yellow River Game Ranch.

It was the third year in a row the two groundhogs' predictions differed.

The article doesn't mention whether the General was pulled from his stump, but apparently everyone (even the poor groundhog) knows that spring comes earlier to our Southern states.

(At least this year Georgia actually had winter. samae said so. I'll bet she's happy about the General's prediction.)

Comments

[htnatch.livejournal.com]

We haven't had a lot of winter this year, but any groundhog who shows himself today will get a snootfull of shadow. ;) Sunny, sunny, sunny! Yay!

[sashafenn.livejournal.com]

The first time I heard of this bizarre tradition was when I saw the film "Groundhog Day". What I still don't get is how the poor groundhog actually conveys that it has seen anything, being, a groundhog, and therefore not being actually able to speak. The only similar thing we have is that if it rains on St Swithin's day - St. Swithin's Day is 15th July, a day on which people watch the weather for tradition says that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin's Day, it will continue so for the next forty days.
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There is a weather-rhyme is well known throughout the British Isles since Elizabethan times.

'St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t'will rain no more.'

St. Swithin (or more properly, Swithun) was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester and legend says that as he lay on his deathbed, he asked to be buried out of doors, where he would be trodden on and rained on. For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then, the monks of Winchester attempted to remove his remains to a splendid shrine inside the cathedral on 15 July 971. According to legend there was a heavy rain storm either during the ceremony or on its anniversary.

This led to the old wives' tale (folklore) that if it rains on St Swithin's Day (July 15th), it will rain for the next 40 days in succession, and a fine 15th July will be followed by 40 days of fine weather.

However, according to the Met Office, this old wives' tale is nothing other than a myth. It has been put to the test on 55 occasions*, when it has been wet on St Swithin's Day and 40 days of rain did not follow.
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Strikes me its all a load of codswallop really. :)