FEBRUARY 2 in the United States, which is today, Feb. 3, here in Manila, is celebrated (by some) as Groundhog Day. The tradition, which “officially” dates back to 1887, is that if the groundhog (a species of marmot) emerges from his burrow and sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If he does not, then spring is just around the corner.
Just because something is a tradition doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid. At least this one is fairly harmless.
Festivities marking the turn of the winter season can be traced back to at least Roman times, and likely existed even earlier. The tradition of Groundhog Day is most closely associated with the Catholic and Lutheran Candlemas, since the tradition of watching an animal, usually a badger or a bear, seemed to originate with Germanic and Celtic peoples.
The original Groundhog Day in the US, in the sense of it being a publicly organized festival, comes from the central Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney. The name of the town, like many others in my home state, is a badly Anglicized version of the original Native American name, which in this case approximately translates to “place of biting gnats.” That name gives a fair impression of what the town has going for it other than the Groundhog Day thing.
The actual site of the festival is a hill just outside of town called Gobbler’s Knob, and yes, that is a real name. There are many interesting place names in Pennsylvania. Not far from where I grew up in the eastern part of the state are little towns called Blue Ball and Bird-in-Hand, which are not far from Fertility, Intercourse and Paradise. Farther west, closer to where my parents grew up, you can pass through places with names like Scalp Level, Burnt Cabins, Forty Four, and Standard Shaft.
The groundhog’s name is Phil. I do not know why that is, but giving pets run-of-the-mill names may just be a habit among Pennsylvanians. I’ve had cats with names like Carl, Sharon and Debbie, and one of my best friends growing up had a dog named Fred. My parents’ dog was named Murray.
In terms of the groundhog’s predictive power, actual research studies have shown that it is no better than tossing a coin. One that I was forwarded over the weekend — carried out by an online sports betting journal called Vegas Insider — compared February-March average temperatures against a 131-year baseline of temperature data, and found that the “predictions” were correct about 52 percent of the time. The groundhog seems to be better at predicting warmer temperatures, i.e., “spring is just around the corner,” than colder days, which is inevitable, as anyone who understands how a calendar works would realize.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and so over the years many other Groundhog Day celebrations have been created in other states, but the one in Punxsutawney is the acknowledged original, and the setting of the 1993 comedy film “Groundhog Day,” which gave us the modern, and possibly better-known meaning of Groundhog Day as a monotonous, seemingly endlessly repeating situation. That was what I was actually thinking about when I woke up this morning; the world seems to be going in circles, and especially so in this country.
Congress is once again grappling with specious impeachment complaints against the president, with at least one to follow against the vice president by the end of the week (that actually happened yesterday). For the nth time it is debating an anti-dynasty measure that no legislator has any intention of passing, while trying to gaslight the public into believing it is being taken seriously. Just in the past few days, noises have been made about Charter change. Outside of Congress, business groups are hand-wringing about the need for outside investment to right the listing ship of a slowing economy in the wake of disappointing 2025 economic data, while the government’s economic managers are still “expressing confidence” the Philippines can reach upper-middle income status in the near future, as if that has any practical meaning to anyone. Government agencies such as the MMDA, LTFRB and DICT are busy churning out ill-considered and people-unfriendly policies and proposals to look busy. Poorly maintained and poorly operated ships are sinking, crowded and unsafe neighborhoods are going up in flames almost daily, and the roads are still congested.
Everyday seems to be groundhog day here, but at least the weather is much nicer.
k k k
Just a quick programming note: I would like to acknowledge and thank the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairman Nino Juan for reacting to my recent columns on Jan. 27 and Feb. 1, respectively. ICSC elevated their reaction to my Jan. 27 column (“The reliability double standard) to the level of a Letter to the Editor, which was published on Friday, Jan. 30, while chairman Juan contacted me privately via email.
As both responses were thoughtful, I have been giving them the time they deserve to study them thoroughly before getting off the stool for Round 2. However, timeliness is also a consideration, so I will answer them both in turn later this week.
ben.kritz@manilatimes.net
Bluesky: @benkritz.bsky.social
Blog: www.badmannersgunclub.com
