Who invented Groundhog Day, and when?
So this is what three millennia of philosophical, religious and scientific thought have brought us to in the progression of Western Civilization. With super-computers running complex weather-forecasting models in real time, we ask a two-foot-long member of the squirrel family to consult its shadow on the length of winter. In truth, the groundhog, or woodchuck, is a stand-in for the badger, which German farmers in the 16th century first relied on for long-term forecasting. (The farmers had too much gassy red cabbage for dinner on those long, cold winter nights, no doubt!). The custom may have even more ancient origins in a similar pagan ritual called Imbolc that occurred in the dead of winter. But the ancient pagans were decent enough not to bother any hibernating animals in the process. Maybe they just relied on their super-computers.
