Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Six More Weeks of Winter

Today in St. Peters, MO: Cloudy, high 40 degrees

It may be cloudy in St. Peters, Missouri, but in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil (the famous groundhog) saw his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter. Bah!

Punxsutawney is in Western Pennsylvania, where Groundhog Day has been a big doings since 1886. The festivities on Groundhog Day center around Gobblers Knob. Here's a link to the news article and photos of the event. If you're curious about the history of Groundhog Day, here's a link to a site that can shed some light on the topic.

Before it was called Groundhog Day, Feb 2 was known as Candlemas Day . The Christian significance of the 2nd of February is that this date is forty days after Christ's birth at Christmas. I also found this poem about Candlemas day: "For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, so far will the snow swirl in May . . ."

8 comments:

  1. No doubt about it, this is Groundhog Day. I've seen Phil's face today on more blogs (yep, mine too), news articles, and television reports than any other living creature in the whole wide world.

    He is one famous critter!

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  2. Hi Pat,
    Yep. Talk about "fifteen-minutes of fame," Phil sure is enjoying his time in the sunlight.
    I'll pop over and check out your blog.
    Donna

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  3. Oh, 6 more weeks of this stuff!! Do you hear that low moan of anguish from this side of the state? AUGHHHH

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  4. Hey Donna, and Pat and Claudia! Maybe you can try what I've been doing in these cloudy, yucky days....turn on all the lights in the room you're in and pretend like you're basking in sunlight and warmth!... You're probably not buying that, are ya?! :)

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  5. Hey! Don't forget to see my Groundhog Day post, too, y'all!

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  6. Poor Phil, all he wants to do is snooze. I play a fun Groundhog game with my students. One hides in the box and another knocks on his door and shouts, Wake Up Groundhog! The kid in the box must identify by voice who it is. Really fun.

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  7. The nice thing about this time of year is that we will only have six more weeks of cold weather.

    Its appears Mother Nature is going to show us again this weekend it isn't time to put up our boots yet.

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  8. Hi Becky, Bookie, Linda and Mr McGoo,
    Thanks for your good ideas and shared feelings of we're all wishing winter would make a hasty exit.
    Stay warm,
    Donna

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