How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?

Groundhog Day 2016

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck

If a woodchuck could chuck wood?

When it comes to major holidays in the USA, Groundhog Day does not qualify. Nobody gets the day off with pay. Nobody pays much attention to it unless, of course, they're from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and then the groundhog steals the show. As the ultimate prognosticator of Spring, if old Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow when he emerges from his burrow on February 2nd, there'll be six more weeks of winter. If it's cloudy and he casts no shadow, we can be assured of an early Spring.

groundhog

Phil, or his progeny, has been forecasting the advent of spring since 1887. His forecast accuracy isn't all that great … about 39%. He tends to predict longer winters, rather than earlier springs, i.e. it's been sunny or bright enough to cast a shadow on more February 2nds than not over the past 129 years.

groundhog day stats

There's evidently lots to do in Punxsutawney around this time of year. There's the Annual Groundhog Ball, known locally as the Hog Ball. This year the tickets are $30/pp. The theme is masquerade (wear a mask) and Rudy and the Professionals are playing. Could get rowdy. There's a heated celebration tent with entertainment and food/beverages for sale at Gobbler's Knob. The rest of the year's events all seem to revolve around the hog theme. I think I'd like to go one year. It would be a winter road trip. We tend to enjoy bizarre, off-the-beaten track events. That said, they estimate 20,000 people attend, so we certainly wouldn't be alone.

groundhog-phil-02

It's interesting to note, by the way, that Groundhog Day, like so many other holidays we celebrate, has its roots in old customs and religions. Imbolc, the mid-winter pagan celebration, “was traditionally a time of weather divination, and the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens may be a forerunner of the North American Groundhog Day.” It may be, in fact, that the celebration dates back as far as the Romans. Who would have thunk it?

This year, however, we're in Las Vegas and as far we're concerned, spring has already sprung. It never really gets all that cold here, comparatively speaking, though the locals sometime complain. The average temps are slowly rising and there's plenty of sun and warm, pleasant days … before the desert heat takes over in a couple of months. How will we celebrate? Glad, you asked. I think we'll watch the live feed of Phil emerging from his burrow, indulge in our annual viewing of the movie Groundhog Day ...

... and maybe even listen to Stephen Tobolowsky's podcast commentary on the film. Maybe we'll take the Groundhog Day quiz and practice the woodchuck tongue twister.

I also checked out some facts about groundhogs. For instance, groundhogs and woodchucks are the same critter. Gophers are different. Amazing the number of trivial facts you can ferret out when you've nothing better to do. And, yes, in case you were wondering, I'm getting mighty impatient waiting around for the closing on the house, the move and then planning our return trip to Nine of Cups. Patience...patience...patience!

Burning of the Tree

Though January 1st was officially the first day of 2015, Lin never considers the previous year truly ended until she “de-decorates” the house and burns the Christmas tree. We spent a morning lugging boxes from the basement, taking all the Xmas decorations down and ornaments off the tree and packing them carefully till next year...then lugging all the boxes back down to the basement. (In New England, we refer to the basement as the “cellah”.) After the ornaments were all stowed, we cleaned and vacuumed and straightened up. The vacuum cleaner always smells good after it has sucked up all those dry pine needles. The house, which usually looks elegant, always looks stark when the decorations go away.

Lin and Matt lugged the tree out to the chiminaria and cut it into burnable pieces to get the fire blazing.

Anything bad that's happened during the year or is currently going on gets written down on a piece of paper and thrown into the fire with the tree and promptly gets burned away. It's a cleansing of the old year and a clean start to the new … kind of an extension of the Yule celebration.

Of course, there is drinking involved. After all, it's cold outside and hot, mulled cider with rum does wonders to keeping a body warm … both physically and spiritually.

There were football games to watch afterward and a huge pot of Lemay Special was simmering on the stove. How can the year ahead be anything but wonderful?

Celebrating Yule

Yule on the pagan calendar is the observance of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. Lin's earth-centered group usually gets together at this time of year to celebrate the rebirth of the sun and the beginning of the winter season. It is one of the oldest winter celebrations known. The group couldn't find a time to get together on the actual solstice date, so they celebrated late and we joined them.

David rarely attends these type of functions, but he thought it might be interesting to participate this time and came along. We brought food and wine to share and gifts to exchange. David had made an ocean plait mat for the occasion with an old halyard from Cups and that was our exchange gift. The attendance was small this year (only 10 of us), but quite enjoyable.

Pam officiated at a small altar decorated with candles and fresh holly and food for a small feast … bread (in this case, gluten-free ginger cookies) and wine. Lin cast the circle signifying the forming of a sacred, safe, magical place that would contain the positive energy we would be generating. The candles were lit with deference to north, south, east and west. Everyone read parts in the simple ceremony which acknowledged the winter months ahead with the promise of the return of the sun and the Spring that would follow. It's a time of contemplation, reflection and opportunity.

Pagan rituals, upon which many modern religions draw their holiday celebrations, date back millennia, and coincide with the change of seasons and the cycle of life in acknowledgment of and in accordance with nature's strength and harmony. Incidentally, this group is called Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans … CUUPS, for short.

I know … it seems weird if you're not into it, aren't familiar with pagan ideas or never attended a ceremony. We found it enjoyable to spend an evening with interesting, genuinely warm people and a good opportunity to reflect upon the year past and the year ahead. No small animal sacrifices were involved.