I almost forgot today is Candlemas, aka Groundhog Day. The liturgical churches traditionally celebrate February 2 as the festival of the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple. It's called Candlemas because in some regions the priest blessed the candles for the year on that day. In England there was a belief that Christmas greenery had to be taken down by February 2 or risk bad luck. So I am really early by waiting only until after Epiphany (January 6) to dismantle the tree! The same date was a major pagan Celtic festival. Many European cultures have legends about various animals emerging from their dens to check the weather on Candlemas. The American folklore of Groundhog Day comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch.
I still don't grok, though, why BAD weather on February 2 foretells GOOD weather with an early spring.
Margarethttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc...
rowena cherry
I still don't grok, though, why BAD weather on February 2 foretells GOOD weather with an early spring.
Margarethttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc...
rowena cherry
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Good news/bad news: the unification of the pagan ethnocentric religious celebrations with Judeo-Christian celebrations is just the sort of thing the Romans would have strongly preferred and the Jews assured everyone - and later, Christians to, that God absolutely hates this and it makes him as jealous as married people during the discovery of their spouse's extramarital affair. It makes sense.
As far as the weather, foretelling the weather. I think that for farmers, that there is local truth available and that given enough time outdoors one can learn to find the signs that really will clearly tell us what's ahead for the Spring...but it was simplified to Groundhog Day and urban dwellers who watch way too much TV probably don't have enough of the information to be able to tell.
