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Groundhog Day - a million dollar industry with Punxsutawney Phil the forecasting groundhog, but its roots are in a mixture of the Christian festival 'Candlemas', ancient European and German 'Hedgehog' superstitions, the weather, and pagan traditions surrounding February 2.

Groundhog Day, Hedgehogs and Candlemas

Last edited by Francine - German Culture; 02/04/14 01:05 AM.

Francine A. McKenna - German Culture Editor

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Avatar: HOHENZOLLERNBRÃœCKE Cologne with CATHEDRAL and LUDWIG MUSEUM. The Bridge a symbol of how Germany was rebuilt after WWII, it was left in ruins, the Cathedral with roots in the 13th century represents the country's history, Museum of Modern Art the present day.

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Hi Francine, a fascinating and 'complicated' subject covered so well, thank you.

I am always in awe of such folklore - One wonders who the first farmer was to notice the behaviours of hedgehogs (for instance) to the extent that they looked out for it for long enough and over the right number of years to be able to use it as a predictor of weather patterns.

The world certainly is a global village. And people and animals don't change ... most long for the winter to be over.

Ah well, there are still some weeks to go for us here in S A, but we are facing our winter and even though it is mild and pleasant and all - and short - it is still winter. I wonder if the Hedgehogs here know when Candlemas is? Dunno.

Cheers


Lestie Mulholland
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Interesting thought Lestie, how many years and how many farmers did it take to come up with these theories. And strangely enough so many of them still really work.

There is an old, really old, 'Weather Man' in Bavaria who forecasts the weather from this type of folklore, and he is invariably more accurate than the 'real' weather forecasters. There is such much we don't understand about things like this....or is it perhaps that we have simply lost the skills and interest over the years.

Don't know what is happening with this year's weather though, it seems to be breaking the rules just about everywhere. Flooding, no snow where there should be some, white over in places that normally never see it, spring flowers already blooming in January, dry weather never seen before in the 400 years we Westerners have been involved in California etc. etc.

Those poor hedgehogs and groundhogs must have their heads spinning trying to keep up with it all.


Last edited by Francine - German Culture; 02/15/14 06:04 AM.

Francine A. McKenna - German Culture Editor

German Culture Site - German Culture Facebook

Avatar: HOHENZOLLERNBRÃœCKE Cologne with CATHEDRAL and LUDWIG MUSEUM. The Bridge a symbol of how Germany was rebuilt after WWII, it was left in ruins, the Cathedral with roots in the 13th century represents the country's history, Museum of Modern Art the present day.

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Hello again,

I remember reciting at school 'Red sky at night, shepherds delight, but red sky in the warning, shepherds warning.

Apparently it was a medieval bit of lore that predicted rain if the skies were red at in the morning. I think it had something to do with the wind directions bringing in rain from Ireland and etc.

We also had a ditty that we skipped to along the lines of Oranges and Lemons, the Bells of St Clement's. This went on and I have forgotten all the verses now, not even sure that it predicted the weather!

Finally for skipping we sang and jumped to

On St Swithy's Day, if it doth rain
A Full forty days will it remain
But on St Swithy's Day, if it be fair
Full forty days, t'won't rain no mair

I don't know how this fitted in with the seasons and the weather patterns, or even when St Swithy's day was; still we enjoyed our skipping. Oh my but those days are far away.

Cheers


Lestie Mulholland
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Gosh I remember that Lestie: "Red sky at night, shepherds delight, but red sky in the morning, shepherds warning."

And my father, who was something of a sailor, has a similar saying.

Thankfully, just to show we are really not 'that old' my sons both learned the saying at their schools (in different countries I might add)........and they are are much younger than me.

As for St. Swithin's Day it really does seem to work out if you look at the figures charting the years. More than strange.

In Germany there is a similar piece of Folklore for June 27:

Ist der Siebenschläfer nass, regnet's ohne Unterlass.
Regnet's am Siebenschläfertag, es sieben Wochen regnen mag.

Which roughly means if it rains on June 27 it isn't going to stop for seven weeks......and it is so often true too, even in Bavaria, which is almost, not quite, Mediterranean.

Golly skipping, I had forgotten all about that. Wonder if youngsters still do it, or are glued to a flickering screen of one type or another instead.

Well as a rotten 'skipper' would probably have preferred a screen if one had been available.


(Fascinating that the Forum formulating doesn't seem to work at the moment, no font, no smile things, and over an hour to actually get online, at least for those of us in Europe, something to do with the current Mercury retrograde no doubt! Those stars and planets they have a lot to answer for.) Smile now as you say!


Last edited by Francine - German Culture; 02/21/14 01:47 PM.

Francine A. McKenna - German Culture Editor

German Culture Site - German Culture Facebook

Avatar: HOHENZOLLERNBRÃœCKE Cologne with CATHEDRAL and LUDWIG MUSEUM. The Bridge a symbol of how Germany was rebuilt after WWII, it was left in ruins, the Cathedral with roots in the 13th century represents the country's history, Museum of Modern Art the present day.


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