Ground Hog Day formerly pagan holiday

Around the fifth century, the European Celts believed that animals had certain "supernatural" powers on special days that were half-way between the Winter Equinox and Spring Solstice (forty days after Christmas and forty days before Easter). Folklore from Germany and France indicated that when groundhogs and bears came out of their winter dens too early, they were frightened by their shadow and retreated back inside for four to six weeks.

When Christianity came into being, the formerly pagan observance was called "Candlemas Day." In America, Candlemas Day became "Groundhog Day" to singularly honor the whiskery waddler. The current tradition calls for "Spring Just Around the Corner" if the groundhog does not see his shadow. However, look for "At Least Six More Weeks of Winter" if the groundhog spies his pudgy image!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Groundhogs are classed as mammals. Their order is Rodentia. They primarily eat healthy vegetables and salad items. They are nocturnal, sociable and "chatter" to those they know in fluent groundhogese. Groundhogs in the wild live only one year (approximately). A healthy groundhog consumes as much as three quarters of a pound of vegetables a day – equivalent to a 175 pound person eating 15 pounds of salad a day.

 

Can you imagine!
It's a Big To Do in our local public schools.

Pass the fried eggs!

Diane

 

Exactly, Jim1999. Our Atlanta Groundhog is General Beauregard Lee, known as 'Beau' to his close friends.