Years past, on Groundhog Day, parents with children in tow would make their way to the Holy Burrows to praise the Great Groundhog on the Feast of Midwinter - February 2 on the new calendar. Now, I realize that people’s lives are filled with distractions - jobs, family, concerns over the economy - but you would think that at least one day a year, people would take time out of their schedules to acknowledge the faith of their forefathers who built this country!
Of course, there have been great schisms in the One True Religion. There are some who declare there is no Great Groundhog, but a Wonderful Woodchuck or a Marvelous Marmot instead. But, in the spirit of ecumenism, may I point out that a Groundhog, Woodchuck, and Marmot are simply different names for the same Transcendental Species?
As well, worshippers are divided on whether Wiarton or Punxsutawney is the sacred city. But whether you prostrate yourself towards one or the other is irrelevant. After all, it is the worship that matters.
My neighbour, may the Rodent bless him, cuts out small black bristol-board Groundhog shadows and spreads them on the carpet outside his children’s bedroom doors. "Now, there is a man who knows how to keep the day!" (Dickens, A Hogmanay Carol)
May I quote from the Hiber Nation’s Holy Book.
Mon 02:02, “Who knows what evil lurks in the lives of man, the Groundhog’s shadow knows!”
Next year in Wiarton!
