Thanks Phil

Image from Corbis

Thanks a whole lot Phil. You saw your shadow today and that means six more weeks of winter. Way to go. 

I was thinking about silly holidays that we celebrate and this was the main one that I came up with. The other one  being Columbus Day in October, that has fallen out of favor due to racism towards Native Americans.  Back to Groundhog Day, and not the movie, this has to be the oddest and silliest tradition that Americans have. Every year on the 2nd of February Americans and Canadians pull out their respective groundhog to see if Spring will come six weeks earlier. 

According to the Wikipedia article, this tradition goes back to an ancient European weather lore about a badger or bear are in charge of determining the weather. It then goes on to say that the Catholic holiday, Candlemas is pretty close to this too, and the Pagan festival of Imbolc also bears similarities.  

I think this is one of those strange traditions that I will need to partake in eventually. They are all over the country. The closest one in Sun Prairie, WI with Jimmy the Groundhog. If I do get a chance to witness this first hand it better be with Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania. 

Happy six more days.