When:
🗓️ February 2
Where:
🇨🇦 Canada & USA 🇺🇸
Since:
🌤️❓
Groundhog Day is a celebration of impending spring, with a big rodent as the host.
The story of the groundhog predicting the weather comes from an old superstition that when the groundhog looks out from their burrow first time that day and the sky is clear enough that the groundhog can see their shadow, the groundhog will go back in their burrow for another 6 weeks to sit out the bad weather that is about to come.
If the sky is cloudy and thus there are no shadows, then the groundhog will welcome the good weather to come.
And the groundhog is always right! (so they say)
🌤️
In Alaska, this day is celebrated as Marmot Day since 2009.
Which is the same in the sense that all groundhogs, a native animal to Canada and north of USA, are marmots, but not all marmots are groundhogs. The most common marmots in Alaska are the alaskan marmot, the hoary marmot and the groundhog.
That’s more marmots to choose from!
Maybe the alaskan marmots are the most accurate choice because they really really dislike mosquitos and will extend their hibernation if the weather allows for mosquitoes to hatch early.
And another superstition common in several parts of the world is that when mosquitoes come early in the year, then winter will come back for a little encore.
#GroundhogDay #MarmotDay
