Of Candlemas and Groundhog Day (Column: 1/30/07)

"February second, Candlemas day: half your wood, and half your hay. Half the winter has passed away, we'll eat our supper by the light of day!"

This old rhyme hearkens back to an earlier time in our nation's history, when our society was mostly rural and agricultural, when we could not simply go to the Wal-Mart or the SuperFresh and buy more of whatever we were running short of: when the seasons, and our preparation for them, could be literally a matter of life or death.

"As the light lengthens, so the cold strengthens." This is another old saw, the truth of which we have certainly seen this year. With most of December and even the first part of January vernally warm, the recent cold snap has seemed all the more brutal. But really, it's just part of the natural cycle of things: the coldest days of all the year typically fall in late January and early February.

It's no surprise, then, that February second, which we know as Groundhog Day and earlier generations knew as Candlemas, Brigitmas, or earlier yet, Imbolc -- falling as it does halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox -- was understood as the halfway point of the winter. If, on this day, you have "half your grain and half your hay, you'll make it safely through 'til May," as yet another old proverb put it.

But what's the deal with the groundhog, anyway? Why "Groundhog Day"? I never quite understood that, either, until I listened to naturalist and storyteller Doug Elliott. On his CD, "Groundhogology: Whistle-pigs and World Politics," he explains that the end of January and early February is groundhog mating season. These portly rodents, who have been hibernating since fall, get up, drag themselves out of their dens -- at least the males do -- and go looking for love. That makes them one of the earlier signs of coming spring.

But why, if a groundhog sees his shadow, do we get six more weeks of winter? That is a more complex question, and linked to spiritual and metaphysical speculation. The idea dates, Elliott says, back to ancient bear and badger cults, in pre-Christian Europe. The ancients "didn't so much worship bears and badgers," he says, "as they watched them." And they saw them crawl underground in the fall, and seemingly die. But then, in the spring, they appeared to be reborn, coming out of their dens refreshed and reinvigorated.

The ancients believed, as many primal peoples do to this day, that all animals and not just humans had a spirit or soul. And animals, like humans, had a shadow side. "We all have a shadow," Elliott points out. We all have a "dark side" to our personalities, what the Christian tradition names as sin. But the ancient peoples believed that when we die, that shadow side is washed away, and we are reborn fresh and new.

Thus when a bear or badger -- or a groundhog -- sleeps the sleep of death in hibernation, its shadow-side too is washed away. But if it sees some of that shadow lingering when it comes out of its den, it dives back underground to complete the healing and cleansing process... and we have six more weeks of winter.

Now, you can take this idea or leave it, as suits your preference. But at least it does a better job of explaining the old "groundhog sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter" story than any other I've run across!

The more practical view is that February second is the halfway point between Solstice and Equinox, and thus the halfway point of the deepest cold of winter. We can be reasonably confident of six more weeks of gradually-mellowing winter, no matter what ol' Punxatawney Phil sees and does.

But we can still enjoy eating our supper by the light of day, and it's still a good time to take stock of our lives and our resources. Do we have enough of whatever we need, for the next phase of life's journey? Are there things we can or should lay aside, shadows we need to cast off?

The second of February occurs on Friday of this week. In the days between now and then, why not take some time to take stock of our lives and resources, material and spiritual alike? And whether you celebrate Candlemas, Imbolc, or Groundhog Day, here's wishing you a restful hibernation, and a fruitful awakening.