I didn’t need a rodent to tell me winter would continue six weeks longer. It has been a long winter already. Punxsutawney Phil and Wisconsin’s Jimmy both saw their shadow signifying winter will persist longer.

According to legend, Groundhog Day is based in part on Candlemas and weather on the hallway point between winter and spring was important as old English sayings states, “If Candlemas be fair and bright, come winter have another flight. If Candlemas brings cloud and rain, go winter, and not come again.”

In addition to Candlemas, Groundhog Day is also supposedly based on Roman belief that if early February was sunny and a hedgehog casts a shadow, then winter temperatures will persist for six more weeks.

The German immigrants settling in Pennsylvania, melded the traditions and lacking hedgehogs, substituted native groundhogs, also known as a woodchuck, and Groundhog Day began.

Farmers in the north, knew winter was not close to the end, whether or not the marmot saw his shadow or not on February 2, so their saying was “Groundhog Day – Half your hay” which meant if that if the farmer didn’t have half his hay remaining, there may have been lean times for the cows before spring and fresh grass arrived.

And with the lack of hay from the drought and the high snow piles, I think the farmers will need more hay than that.

Groundhog Day