Posted on 02/02/2010 5:26:48 AM PST by JoeProBono
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) -- The groundhog has spoken. And it's bad news.
Punxsutawney (puhnk-suh-TAW'-nee) Phil has emerged to see his shadow before chilly revelers in Pennsylvania, meaning winter will last another six weeks.
German tradition holds that if a hibernating animal sees its shadow on Feb. 2 - the Christian holiday of Candlemas - winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says spring will come early.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I watched this a while ago on Fox & Friends. When you watch the video.....the guy who finally ends up holding Phil (not the guy in the photo above); is it just me, or does the guy bear a striking resemblance to Bill Murray???
"How dare you! You're nothing but a rodent!"
Has this little rodent ever NOT seen his shadow?
Globull Warming Back-Phil Ping
Wolf (creek) predicts the same.
shot the bastard.
Candlemas Day was also the day when some cultures predicted weather patterns. Farmers believed that the remainder of winter would be the opposite of whatever the weather was like on Candlemas Day. An old English song goes:If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come winter, have another flight; If Candlemas bring clouds and rain, Go winter, and come not again.Thus if the sun cast a shadow on Candlemas day, more winter was on the way; if there was no shadow, winter was thought to be ending soon. This practice led to the folklore behind "Groundhog's Day," which falls on Candlemas Day.Today, the feast is still celebrated on February 14th in some Eastern Churches, including the Armenian Church, where the feast is called, "The Coming of the Son of God into the Temple." Most churches celebrate it on February 2nd.
http://www.churchyear.net/candlemas.html
Next venue for Phil - Guest lecturer at the University of East Anglia Atmospheric Science Center.
He could add vital FURensic evidence to their data.
In the movie Groundhog Day the guy holding the groundhog is Brian Doyle Murray, Bill Murray's brother. I think he was picked not just because has Bill Murrays brother but because he looked like the real guy holding the groundhog. So it could just be a coincidence.
46 days and 5 hours until it is spring equinox. So the ground hog says that spring will come early? 42 days would be six weeks.
Don’t Drive Angry!!
They're concerned that we (humans) subject the little fella (is he a "he"?) to noise, crowds, upsetting his schedule, etc.
PETA's a bunch of peters.
The accuracy of the predictions has been recorded as only being 40% right.
So I figure in less than half of the 6 week prediction we will see spring.
Down in Georgia Gen. Beauregard Lee is predicting an early spring for the south. After the cold wet winter we have had, I hope he is right. hehe
Good morning!
He hasn’t seen his shadow 14 times. Has seen it 97 times, I think.
That’s what I saw on the news this morning.
Yeah, he kind of does, doesn't he?
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