Happy Groundhog Day!  February 2nd is a date that’s got a lot of folk wisdom and tradition associated with it.  Besides being Groundhog Day here in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, it’s also Candlemas in the Roman Catholic calendar, and Imbolc, or the First Day of Spring, according to the old Celtic calendar.

Groundhogs are native to North America. They can be real pests in the garden, but good fencing will keep them out.

Groundhog Day is an old Pennsylvania German/Dutch custom.  According to legend, if a groundhog sees his shadow at sunrise on this day, we’re in for 6 more weeks of winter weather.  If not, then we’ll see an early spring.  The early settlers to our region brought the custom with them from their European homes, where a badger was the “prognosticator,” since Groundhogs are native only to North America.  Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, is the most well-known of the Grundsow Lodges (Groundhog Lodges) celebrating this holiday.

(In reality, groundhogs usually don’t wake up from their winter hibernation until well into March, when the first green grass is available for them to eat.)

Candlemas was celebrated as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mother by the Catholic Church. It marks the day that, according to the New Testament, the infant Jesus was taken into the Jewish Temple for the first time, to be accepted as a member of the Jewish faith, and his mother Mary was admitted for a rite of purification, traditionally held for women about 6 weeks after giving birth.  Candlemas occurs 40 days after Christmas.

When I was a child (in the days before Vatican II),  this was a really wonderful celebration in the Polish Roman Catholic Church. The celebration started very late at night and at dawn on the 2nd, boxes of beeswax candles would be brought into the church to be blessed.  These blessed candles were then distributed to the congregation, so that they could be burned in the home for blessings and also–and most importantly–to be on hand in cases where the sacrament of Extreme Unction (Last Anointing) might be needed.

Imbolc, a very ancient Celtic holiday, marks the beginning of the spring season.  Although today we accept the first day of spring to begin at the Spring Equinox on March 20-21, logically, the equinox marks the midpoint of the spring season, just as June 20-21 (traditionally called Midsummer’s Day) marks the middle of summer, not its start. 

For gardeners and nature lovers, you’ll note that trees and shrubs are showing fat and swelling buds, birds are becoming much more active at feeders, and houseplants are starting to perk up.  All this because the days are getting longer and the sun is getting stronger…despite those cold temps and the snow!  If you keep chickens (as I do), and you don’t keep them under artificial light during the winter, you’ll notice that your hens begin to lay eggs again around this date.

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