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Groundhog
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NEW !! |
| Now,
let me tell you one thing: Our celebration of La Candelaria is related to Groudhog Day. You may think " Our teacher is
mad!" Well, I'm not! Europeans and Americans celebrate the
same day with an identical superstition, but here we add the religious
connection, while in America it looks like a joke. Just keep reading,
Halfway between the Winter Solstice (on or around December 21, the first day of winter) and the Spring Equinox (on or around March 21, the date when night and day are the same length), we find February 2nd. Around that date nature starts again, the animals that hibernate start waking up, and the first grass of spring appears and starts to grow. To sum up, it's the time when a new year begins for nature. In the ancient Eire it was the moment for the Oimelc festival, a day to purify hearts and homes to get ready for the spring. The Romans celebrated purifying ceremonies as well. Christianity didn't want to be left behind, and established Candlemas, a celebration of Virgin Mary's Purification (and also a day to commemorate Christ's appearance at the Temple). These celebrations also had a popular superstition: a sunny day on February 2 would mean as many as 6 more weeks of cold winter, while a cloudy day on this date would indicate the arrival of fair weather. This superstition was deeply rooted among the Germans, who paid attention on that date to badgers or hedgehogs as they came out of their holes after the hibernation period: if the animal saw its shadow as it came out, it meant cold for six more weeks, but if no shadow appeared, it meant that spring was very near. This superstition was present almost all over Northern Europe, with or without an animal. The Germans who emigrated to America took this tradition with them, focusing on the groundhog, more abundant there. That's why the groundhog became the "weatheranimal" for the European settlers since the 18th century. On the other hand the Delaware indians, who got in touch with the Europeans, believed that their ancestors, called "Wojak" had come out of the bowels of the earth to live as human hunters. The Europeans pronounced it "Woodchuck", and today it is another word for "groundhog". Thus the European superstition would continue in America and the myth of February 2 lived on among the settlers. But keep reading: when the Americans do something, they do it the American way ... BIG! Punxsutawney ( what a name! ) in Pennsylvania, an old Delaware campsite, would be the place where the new myth would be born: On 2 February 1886 Clymer Freas, the editor of the local newspaper, The Punxsutawney Spirit, wrote a headline that would make him famous in America: "Today is groundhog day and up to the time of going to press the beast has not seen its shadow". Bingo!! The new "fashion" of the groundhog spread rapidly across the States and Canada. Soon a "groundhog club" was created in Punxsutawney, and they chose a nearby hill called "Gobbler's Knob" where they knew that there were groundhogs, and there they set up a peculiar "sanctuary" where a specimen of this animal would live. This groundhog would be called Punxsutawney Phil, "seer of seers, sage of sages, prognosticator of prognosticators, and weather prophet extraordinary" . In Canada they would call their groundhog "Wiarton Willy". Punxsutawney started to celebrate a festival of the groudhog, and with the typical American paraphernalia, the village would become " Weather Capital of the World ". Nowadays, all the American TV channels talk about this every February 2, and even Hollywood remembered to mention it with a comedy, starring Bill Murray. The actor was trapped in time and he always lived the same day, unable to escape. The day, and also the title of the film was ( of course ! ) Groundhog Day Well, God Bless America.
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WATCH GROUNDHOG DAY 2007 !!
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