Groundhog Club handler Ron Ploucha holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, during the 129th celebration of Groundhog Day on Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. Phil saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter weather.
The handlers of Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, said today the furry rodent has forecast six more weeks of winter.
I love these superstitions don’t you. It is amazing to me that a groundhog in one spot in Pennsylvania can see its shadow (no matter where else the sun is or is not shinning) and predict the continuation of winter or beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere. My prediction is that spring, the vernal equinox (which is also called the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere) falls on March 20 at 6:45 P.M. EDT and winter will end about the same time.
Enjoy more equinox facts and folklore. According to folklore, you can stand a raw egg on its end on the equinox. One spring, a few minutes before the vernal equinox, several Almanac editors tried this trick. For a full workday, 17 out of 24 eggs stood standing. Three days later, they tried this trick again and found similar results. Perhaps 3 days after the equinox was still too near. Try this yourself and let me know what happens!
I have a picture of a broom standing up by itself in the office of my eye doctor on groundhog day four years ago. We tried it when we got home and it worked for a little while.
Superstitions are so funny… but people believe them. A person I know was using her “lucky” penny on a scratch off lottery ticket. I asked what makes that a lucky penny? Did you win something with it? No! Has it brought you luck? No! Why is your lucky penny? Cause I found it with heads up.
We do other superstitious stuff like wearing the same socks we were wearing the last time our college team won the big game. Never stepping on the base line in baseball. Sitting in the same place… same chair as the last time we won. Saying the same lucky phrase. Crossing ourselves even though we are not Catholic.
I love the story told of being lucky finding the parking place right outside the lawyers office. It is true. I only had to circle the block seven times (my lucky number) before the space came open.
Do we do that with our faith? Are we superstitious? I have heard that people will allow
their Bibles to fall open at any spot, blindly run their finger down the page and consider what is printed where they stop as a sign from God… to go and do likewise. What if you turned to Matthew 8:32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water.” It might be better to try to enact in our daily life the theme of what Jesus was trying to get across in the totality of scripture rather than a random sentence which most likely has nothing to do with you or your situation.
But then who can argue with Dr. Seuss. Lucky is when opportunity meets with preparedness.
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