In the musical, A Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye ponders traditions:
‘You may ask, how did this tradition start? I'll tell you - I don't know.
We do know about Groundhog’s Day. This convoluted tradition actually starts with Jewish law. In the Christmas story, we are told that 40 days after the birth of her first-born son, in adherence to the law as written in Leviticus, the mother, Mary, went to the Temple for ritual purification.
To commemorate this event, on February 2, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated with processions in many parts of the world. Over the centuries, it has inspired some lovely compositions.
The Feast was celebrated in Constantinople in the year 450 while the city was experiencing a deadly plague. The emperor ordered a special procession. The people were to carry candles and pray, which they did. The epidemic ended…. thus the tradition of carrying candles caught on and spread throughout Europe and the Eastern Empire.
Because people carried candles to mass to be blessed on February 2, day became known as Candlemas. And the fact that the Candlemas is the midpoint between the solstice and the equinox apparently got folks thinking about spring.
In Germany, people somehow got the idea that if a badger, or maybe it was a hedgehog, saw its shadow on February 2, the creature would turn around and go back to bed for another six weeks.
And some of those people from Germany immigrated to America, where hedgehogs were in short supply, but groundhogs abounded. Candlemas morphed into Groundhog’s Day.
For the record, even in mild years, in the Great Lakes region, groundhogs usually do not emerge from their dens until late February or March. But they might sort of wake up today. Hibernating animals experience periodic arousal from time to time to catch up on sleep. Apparently, the body functions of a hibernating animal are so reduced that the brainwaves of sleep are impossible. And though scientists do not know why, they do know that sleep is essential. So a groundhog may ease out of hibernation to prevent death, but sun or no sun, he most likely will not pop out of his hole.
Nevertheless, we repeat the Groundhog’s Day tradition, again and again and again, always in exactly the same way.
