How Groundhog Day legend began

On Wednesday, people all over the country will hoist a groundhog, hold it up to the sky and say how much longer winter will last — if sunny, six weeks more, if overcast, almost over.

After that, Groundhog Day will be over until the next Feb. 2. For generations of shadowcasting groundhogs and their human handler to come, it will probably be the same. Nobody believes it, but it’s February and you need something to distract you from the sleet.

Sean McNamara, owner of Redding Nursery and longpestered by the persistent groundhogs in his yard and under his deck, questions why the wingding.

“There are lots of animals more deserving than groundhogs,” McNamara said.

It’s a matter of history, Christian holidays, European folklore and luck of the draw. Some animals are glorious. Others have glory thrust upon them. Groundhogs — solitary, plump plant-eaters — are definitely the later.

Groundhog Day has its roots in Candlemas, one of the oldest Christian holidays.

It occurs 40 days after Christmas, when Mary brought her infant Jesus to the Jewish temple, so that she could be purified under Jewish rotes, and her son could be presented to God. It’s known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ.

But Feb. 2 is also, more or less, midway through winter. It’s getting lighter, but it’s still a little dark. So priests and ministers bless candles on Candlemas, and parishioners light them, on a day that carries the message of more light to come.

But somewhere, the day got connected with weather predicting — again, with a sunny Candlemas foretelling cold and storms ahead.. There are songs and poems about this — an Anglo-Scottish one says “If Candlemas Day is fair and clear, there’ll be twa (two) winters in the year.’’

If you were a European peasant you could look to see if animals emerging from their dens were out and about and casting shadows on Candlemas Day — a bear, a hedgehog, a fox, a bird.

For Germans, it was a badger. But when they immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th century and became the Pennsylvania Dutch, they found a landscape devoid of badgers. Groundhogs, in the right spot at the right time, took over shadow-casting duties.

Gradually, the folk belief became a popular thing. Punxsutawney Phil gave rise to Groundhog Day celebrations around the country.

In Connecticut, it’s Chuckles, a state groundhog housed at the Lutz Children’s Museum.

Patricia Buxton, the museum’s executive director, said it, and the first Chuckles, began celebrating the holiday in 1978. This year, which features Chuckles the 11th., will be both live and streamed, Buxton said.

However, it’s unclear whether any groundhog living in the wild north of the Mason-Dixon Line will be out and about on Feb. 2. They’ll more likely still be conked out.

Groundhogs — aka woodchucks, land beavers or whistlepigs — are one of nature’s true hibernators. They dig a burrow below the frost line, curl up in October, and don’t wake up until March.

Their body temperature drops to about 35 degrees F. Their hearts beat only four to 10 times a minute. They take one breath every six minutes or so. They lose half their weight.

Then in March, when there is new grass and plants to eat, they wake up, eager to feed and mate. Rather than the weather or shadows, they have other things in mind.

“I’ve seen them out, really early,” said Chris Vann, wildlife biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. “The males are looking for females.”

Groundhogs are the lowland members of the marmot family. Unlike their colonyloving marmot cousins in the western mountains, our groundhogs are pretty solitary, waddling off on their own to find lettuce plants to eat.

They are great diggers, creating extensive burrows that can extend for several yards and include side tunnels and multiple exits. Other animals — foxes, skunks, rabbits — will move in when they move out.

Predators — coyote, bobcat, foxes — will eat them. Dogs will chase them. People with edible plants will curse them.

Sean McNamara, of Redding, said he’s tried to find a noxious solution to ward off groundhogs. He’s blocked burrow entrances. His wife has researched what plants groundhogs don’t like and used them for their deck planters.

To no avail. The shadows groundhogs cast in the McNamara yard are vexatious ones.

“They keep coming back,” he said.

Keith Srakocic / Associated Press file photo Punxsutawney Phil, the weather-predicting groundhog, on the shoulder of one of his handlers in Punxsutawney, Pa.