Where Did Groundhog Day Come From?

You gotta love a holiday centered around weather. You might think it’s about the animal, but no, any hibernating animal will do just as well. Did you that in Germany, it's known a Badger Day? This is the turning point of the season, and for pre-industrial societies (particularly farmers), the midwinter date was a day to take stock and determine whether you have enough food and firewood to last the rest of the winter. If you miscalculated the previous fall, or you found that the grain is full of weevils and your cow started looking skinny, you had good reason to look for omens of an early spring. Read about the origins of this holiday in an article I posted at mental_floss.