Poor guy!
Does this not look like one pissed off groundhog? He was pulled from his stump by the Official Groundhog Handler and held aloft. His face reads "Wtf?!" to me!
Today we celebrate (any excuse for a party!)
Candlemas (Catholic/Orthodox)
Groundhog Day
Groundhog Job Shadow Day
Hedgehog Day
Imbolc (Wiccan)
Presentation of the Lord Day (Catholic/Orthodox)
Teach Your Daughter to Volunteer Day
Dia De La Candelaria (Mexico)
Well, since I'm unfamiliar with some of these, I thought I would look them up. I found all of these on Wikipedia, so....take them with a grain.
Hedgehog Day is said be a German tradition inherited from the ancient Romans. It is claimed to be a precursor to Groundhog Day, a minor holiday in North America on the second of February. On that day, groundhogs are said to emerge from their burrows. According to tradition, if they see their shadows, they return to their burrows and six more weeks of winter are to be expected. According to the history page of groundhog.org, groundhog day is a transformation of a German predecessor, which relied not on groundhogs, but on hedgehogs. German immigrants to North America, finding no hedgehogs in their new land, substituted groundhogs. Tracing the tradition further into the European past, groundhog.org claims:
The Roman legions, during the conquest of the northern country, supposedly brought this tradition to the Teutons, or Germans, who picked it up and concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, an animal, the hedgehog, would cast a shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of bad weather. [1] (This quote was gathered January 29, 2007).
The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (also known as Candlemas or Feast of the Purification of the Virgin) celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus. In the Catholic Church, the Presentation is a feast celebrated on 2 February and is the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.
Imbolc is one of the four principal festivals of the Irish calendar, celebrated among Gaelic peoples and some other Celtic cultures either at the beginning of February or at the first local signs of Spring. Most commonly it is celebrated on February 2, as this is the cross-quarter day on the solar calendar, halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Originally dedicated to the goddess Brigid, in the Christian period it was adopted as St Brigid's Day. In Scotland the festival is also known as Là Fhèill Brìghde, in Ireland as Lá Fhéile Bríde, and in Wales as Gwyl Ffraed.
Imbolc is traditionally a time of weather prognostication, and the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens is perhaps a precursor to the North American Groundhog Day. A Scottish Gaelic proverb about the day is:
Thig an nathair as an toll
La donn Bride,
Ged robh tri traighean dh’ an t-sneachd
Air leachd an lair.
"The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground." [1]
Interesting, huh? Well, let me think about these.
"Today, dear Libra, your stars are in flux. They will not help you with your moods today since this is the one day of the year when you must rely on strange looking varmints to predict your future. Today is a good day to go to your local religeous institution of choice and hide in prayer. It is important today, dear libra, that you think of the next generation and drag your daughter to some place she does not want to go and tell her this is important, that she learn to give of herself, damn it, and not expect others to do the same for her. Have a good day, dear Libra."
Yeah, I know, not very creative, but it is going to be one of those days. I have to focus on many projects and can't seem to do it. Some of these things are due this weekend. Oh hell, one was due yesterday. Yeah, it is going to be one of those days.