Hedgehog Day!

Happy Hedgehog Day! This day, February 2, is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. What does this mean? It's means that not only is it a good day to start thinking about the end of winter, but also that this day has had special meaning for far longer than the groundhog in Pennsylvania has been popular. In ancient times the Celts, for example, called February 2 Inbolc, while the Romans celebrated Lupercalia. It was known as the festival of lights because it celebrated the return of the sun and the lengthening of days. Sometimes the weather was predicted by bears and wolves emerging from their dens to test the air. When Constantine made everyone Christian he simply adopted the holiday and put a Christian spin on it; Now Imbolc was Candlemas day, and the day in which Jesus was presented to the temple. February 2 is 40 days after Christmas, the appropriate amount of time in between birth and when a baby can brought to Temple in the Jewish tradition. Now you are probably wondering where the candles come into this (unless you are my mother and knew all this already). Christians used candles to celebrate Jesus being the light of the world. Lots of candles for lots of light, hence Candlemas.

Now then, on to the part where animals enter into the story. The good ole' German farmers on the their hardy German farms used to notice that the hedgehogs would come out of hibernation just long enough to peer around and take stock of the world. A farmer would watch the little critter carefully and try to deduce the forecast based on the hedgehog's reaction. It became a tradition known as Hedgehog Day. Isn't that fabulous? These same German farmers ended up emigrating to Pennsylvania (I guess the hardy German farms weren't hardy enough for the farmers) where lo and behold there were no hedgehogs! Tragedy! No really, how awful would it be to grow up with hedgehogs scurry around your house and then go somewhere where they simply don't exist? Anyway, the German farmers did notice that there was another rodent running around plentifully in their fields. This was of course the groundhog (or Marmot, if you're in Sarah Palin's Alaska). Today everyone knows Punxsutawney Phil as the Seer of Seers, and so forth. So from Imbolc, to Candlemas, to Hedgehog, to Groundhog Day, February 2 has a lot of history, and maybe isn't such a dull holiday after all. Want to know more about the religious aspect of this day? Click here. Want to know more about groundhogs/marmots? Click here. Want to see Phil's prediction? Go here.