@JimmyKimmel is Puzzled about the #Groundhog Kerfuffle ... Compelling Me to 'Research' #GroundhogDay etc. | @History @Wikipedia @ThoughtCoDOTCOM

on
His puzzlement was expressed at the beginning of a monologue linked through 'the main words' below. Here, I list a few 'root-words' that tie that word into our lexicon....
The word “Groundhog Day” (or "Ground-Hog Day") was so-named in an Ohio-newspaper (which called the Weather-|Forecasting |Event (where a Groundhog emerges from its hole at #GobblersKnob and either 'sees its shadow & returns to its hole for six more weeks of winter' or 'doesn't see its shadow and stays outside the hole because winter will be over sooner') "an Old Tradition" started in #Punxsutawney, |Pennsylvania). 
“Groundhog” (the word for the American |Marmot, a.k.a. the |Woodchuck (actually an Anglicized version of the Lenape Indian word for 'groundhog')) is built of the words |Ground & |Hog. 

I'm sure Kimmel knows most of this ... what puzzles him is 'why this event is so popular' ... Do you know? 

The name of the town “Punxsutawney” (the Weather Capital of the World) is built on ancient words that mean "the Town of the |Sandflies" (the participating marmot--apparently the same one for hundreds of years, made immortal by a magic dandelion-potion--takes the name/title Phil, possibly in honor of -an ancient German King or -the English husband-of-|Queen-Elizabeth-Ⅱ 
(... or maybe in honor of nearby Philadelphia). 
The location (actually a few miles outside of Punxsutawney) is called “Gobbler's Knob” because either the area was home to a large group of Turkeys ("gobble-gobble"), or it was where |Hunters would traditionally |Gobble up the Woodland Creatures they |Caught. 



The annual celebration started as the Celts' |Imbolc (the day halfway between Winter Solstice & Vernal Equinox), which evolved into Christians' Candlemas (celebrating the Presentation of Infant Jesus at the Holy Temple (think 'Baptism-Anniversary,' which Christians sometimes celebrate)).

February 2 was also the day when Germans would look and see if Woodland Creatures either stayed out of their holes (signaling that Winter was almost over) or saw their shadows & went back into their holes for six more weeks of Winter.

And German settlers brought the tradition to America, using the Americans' Groundhogs instead of Germany's Badgers or Hedgehogs.

Comments

Post a Comment

I appreciate your comment, and I'll probably approve it & publish it soon (give me about a week before you try to post it again when it doesn't publish immediately ... thanks)