WEBVTT - How Groundhog Day Works 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.680 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.320 and there's Charles W Chuck Bryan over there, and Jerry's 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:21.160 right over there. Uh, Internet speaking wise, and this is 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:25.160 Stuff you should Know, a special holiday edition that comes 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.840 out on the holiday. Chuck, Now, is this can we 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.839 call this a holiday? Yeah? Groundhog Day is definitely a holiday. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.919 Are you not a pagan? Well no, I just thought 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.840 holidays meant like work. You don't work in businesses, clothes. 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:45.880 I there's gotta be somebody that's closed on groundhog Day. Well, 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.440 I bet certain people in a certain town. Well, actually 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.400 they're probably everything's open because they're they're just doing this 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:54.600 to make money, right. They would be total fools if 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.520 they're like, yeah, I always close on groundhog Day. I 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:00.880 didn't think that through. So um, yeah, we'll get to 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.760 that town in a little bit. But first, Chuck, let's 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.520 talk about groundhogs themselves. Because if you don't know what 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.400 groundhog Day is, don't worry. This isn't one of those 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.080 ones where we need to define it for you. Just 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:13.440 kick back and relax and like, let us guide you 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:20.800 down the river of knowledge. Okay right. Uh. Groundhogs a 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:28.320 k a. Wood Chuck's podcast. Whistle pigs another name they are, 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.720 uh you know what they are? There, beautiful? Um. They 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.760 weigh twelve or fifteen pounds. They live. Put a pin 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.320 in this stat They live six to eight years. That 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:42.240 will come back later. They eat veggies and fruits. They're 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.000 called whistle pigs sometimes because they whistle if they're scared 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:47.080 or if they're looking for a mate. It's more of 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:51.600 a chirping sound to me. Yeah, but chirping pigs is 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:53.840 not as fun as whistle pig. That explains that high 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.800 end bourbon. Though I had no idea why it was 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.800 called whistle pig, but it's named after ground. Whistle pig. 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.200 Is that high end? Yeah, it's pretty good. Okay, it's 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.920 the kind they keep behind the counter. Well, it's on 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:09.640 my shelf. I don't drink a lot of bourbon. But oh, 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.000 we'll go turn it up right now while we're recording. 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.240 Tell us what you think. All right, I'm back and 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:21.400 I'm hammered everyone. Uh. They can climb trees, they can swim, 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.160 and they hibernate in late fall. And this is kind 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:26.600 of one of the important parts of wood chucks and 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.520 groundhogs and how they figure in the groundhog day. They 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.440 hibernate in the fall and their body temperatures drop, that 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.760 heartbeat slows down from eight to about five beats a minute, 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:39.480 they lose a lot of body fat, and then the 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.440 males in February come out and say, who wants to 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.639 do it? Right? What's crazy, though, is when they come out, 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.840 they don't actually do it. They more like make plans 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:53.440 for later. It's they're nervous. It's really weird. And the 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.799 reason why they do this they literally break hibernation, which 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:58.840 can kill them if they do it wrong and the 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.240 timing is wrong or they don't have enough body fat 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.919 stow it up. They do it because groundhogs are so 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.800 ornerary toward one another. They're really territorial about their food 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:13.119 supply and their burrow that they've probably made a lot 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.720 of enemies and heard a lot of feelings over the 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.560 past year. So they come out in February to basically 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:20.800 be like, hey, how about you and I just bury 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.480 the hatchet and I'm gonna go back to sleep for 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.440 a few more weeks. But when I come out, we'll 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.240 totally do it, and I'm going to bury something out 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:33.080 and oh my god, and uh they do. There's some 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.080 sort of agreement, uh, and they see each other a 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.800 few weeks later. The groundhog goes back to his burrow 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.960 and then he comes out for good. He finishes hybridating 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:48.320 in March, and then the the groundhog fornication can begin 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:53.640 forth with post taste. And that nuts. That's how ordnery 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:55.560 they are. They have to come out and make plans 0:03:55.640 --> 0:04:00.560 for later. Yeah, they need a which is that chill 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.640 time in between two to really gather themselves and make 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:08.360 sure they're up for it. So that's super cute. That's 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.080 a nice little primer on who these little beasts are. 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:16.080 But this is about Groundhog Day, the holiday where America 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:21.039 shuts down, government doesn't do business, the banks are closed. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.120 Can't buy a piece of gum to save your life. 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:27.360 Oh man, if only so, get that gum on February one, everybody, right. 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:35.400 But sometime between that point um between when America became 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:41.360 a place and seven, someone looked at the groundhog and 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.360 this little hibernation thing that they did, and they said, 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:46.800 you know what, we also have this weird tradition that 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.440 we're going to explain a second, where we like to 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.880 try and predict when to plant crops and what the 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.040 weather is going to do here towards the end of 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.600 winter in the spring. And let's mash that up into 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.880 a weird, weird day to honor this little thing. And 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.680 that's Groundhog Day. That's where it came from. It's a 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.680 couple of weird traditions, like you said, mashed together. And 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.760 the other weird tradition UM in addition to the groundhog 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:18.040 coming out UH in February, is UM. This this tradition 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:22.360 of February two being observed as UM kind of this 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.520 indicator of how much winter is going to be left. 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:31.040 And it's based on an astronomical event called the cross 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.520 quarter day, which was observed by the ancient Celts the 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.400 Pagans I mentioned earlier. UM and cross quarter days are 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.320 pretty interesting and that it's a it's a day of 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.320 the year, and there's four of them that fall between 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:49.400 a solstice and an equinox. And UM, do you have 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:51.880 a solstice is where the sun is either at the 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.960 most northerly or southernly part of the sky, UM, depending 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.919 on what hemisphere you're in. So it's either summer or 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.560 winter solstice. And then the equinox is where the equator 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.200 of the Earth in the equator of the Sun are 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.680 on an equal plane. Just for a minute, just for 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.240 a moment, I should say, um, and you have your 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:15.240 vernal or spring and autumnal fall equinox. Um. So those 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.920 are four quarter dates, and then in between those are 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:21.559 four cross quarter dates that carve up the I guess 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.680 the year even further. And to the ancient Celts, it 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.840 seems like to them the cross quarter dates weren't the 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.679 midway point of anything. They were the beginning point, whereas 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.760 to us the quarter dates, the solstices, and the equinox 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.320 are the beginning of the seasons. The Celts didn't see 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.960 it that way, and so they really celebrated the cross 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.320 quarter dates. Yeah, it's kind of like I guess an 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.040 American might see them as sort of a seasonal hump 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.160 day where you're kind of smack dab in the middle 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:53.320 of things, and we don't observe them like they do. 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:58.000 But I feel like, just an instinctively, in sort of 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.919 early to mid February every year, late January, my psyche 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:07.000 sort of starts to think about, all right, we're easing 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.440 towards spring. I feel like we're about halfway there, and 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.360 this is in Atlanta. Even that's the ancient pagan blood 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.720 coursing through your veins. It might be I think we're 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.400 we're pagans, but yeah, but to the Pagans it was. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.280 It wasn't like the halfway points the beginning. So in 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.880 on February twod this cross quarter day. It was actually 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.480 a day called um. Well, it was called a number 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.760 of things, but to the Celts it was it was 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.800 the beginning of spring. Um. At first they called it 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.680 in bold, which means in the belly like the world, 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.320 the earth is pregnant and about to give birth from 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.120 into spring. Um. Like, yeah, it was when the lambing 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.840 season began, which I don't think I like that. No, no, 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.680 you do. If you if you look up lambing pictures, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:54.840 it's like that's when all the baby lambs are born 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.520 and hopping around. I thought, that's what I thought too, 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.960 And and no, that probably a little bit later, but um, 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.520 this is when everything's still cute and sweet. Okay. They 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:12.160 also called it umu brigantia um after the after Bridgid, 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.640 the female deity of light. And the whole point was that, 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.280 you know, the sun had really kind of been hiding 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.960 for most of the winter, ever since the winter solstice, 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.840 and now it was starting to kind of creep out. 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:27.640 And to those of us who are like, this is 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.160 the halfway points kind of like, come on, son, keep going. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:32.800 And when the Christians got their hands on the Celts, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.640 the pagans Um, they said, well, how about this. Let's 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.600 call this like the Festival of Lights, and we'll commemorate this. 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:43.040 This is like, um the part of winter where it's 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.600 starting to get sunny er and sunnier, by having you 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.280 guys bring your candles around the church and we're gonna 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.920 bless them and then they'll just keep burning for the 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.880 rest of the winter. How about that? That's right, They 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:58.320 turned them into magic candles. It became known not only 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:02.120 as Festival of Lights, but handle moss. And you'll hear 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.880 that word a few times later on. And it's sort 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.000 of still grounded in seasons though. And the whole thing 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.599 here is like as far as the ancient Celts go, 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.800 and then you know people since then farmers, namely, is 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.280 when can we when is the weather going to turn here? 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.439 When is that ground gonna thaw? When can we expect 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.079 good weather and not be fooled into planting, only to 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.120 have it frost again and kill those early buds. That's 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:34.400 something that you now that you're you've taken up gardening 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.280 and stuff at your house, you will be frustrated by this. 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.760 Now to my friend, when that happens, Oh yeah, the frost, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.280 the early frost or late frost, I should say late frosted. 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:49.480 I can't sleep well. Emily always like when things start 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.640 blooming to early. She's like, no, stop, stop, I think 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.720 it's gonna frost again. It always does. I had to Uh, 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:59.439 I had to stop myself. Now, I failed to stop myself. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.760 I fertilized too late in the season, and um, and 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:09.160 I had a big problem with that. Man, my anecdotes 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.880 have just really gone downhill in the last twelve years. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.960 I predicted your your gardening way back in the day. 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.400 I don't know if you remember that in what episode 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.400 how Gardening. Someone's gonna have to find it. But you 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.840 kind of you kind of tease me, and I said, 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.000 you're gonna get into it one day, trust me. And 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:32.120 you're like, I see that doesn't sound like me. Yeah thing, 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.000 huh yeah, I'm actually surprised at that. But I'll take 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.120 your word for it. I do want to know. So 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.079 anybody out there, if you know what Chuck's talking about, 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:43.240 let us know what episode it is. And at times 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:50.040 thing will be great toe so he can erase it. Right. So, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:52.480 like I said, they were trying to figure out when 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:57.120 to plant, and uh, it was not a good omen 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.679 if it was bright and sunny, because that was a 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:04.520 sign of snow and a late frost to continue on 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:06.440 and that would not be a good time to plan. 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.120 And this is all a little confusing, yeah, if if 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.960 I'm being honest, Yeah, So, like the the whole thing 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.360 was if at Candle moss Um February two, if if 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.280 it was if that day was nice out, if the 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.240 sun was shining, if there were no clouds in the sky, 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.040 that actually meant that there was going to be a 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.480 much longer period of winter left. And the reason why 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.319 that kind of makes sense from a farmer's standpoint is one, 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.160 maybe you're saying, well, this pretends a growing season where 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:38.640 it's just going to be nice out and there's not 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.280 gonna be any rain. You don't want that. But also 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.320 number two, it's like you said, and like that kind 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.199 of weather might fool the plants into starting to grow 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.840 again and then bam they get hit with a late frost. 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.920 So even though it seems counterintuitive, if it's nice out 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.600 on February two at candle Moss to the ancient Celts, 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:58.800 that meant that there was more winter coming. If it 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.440 was the opposite, it was overcast, maybe even storming. If 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.920 it was just gross out, it meant that winter was 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:08.839 almost over, that the it was more than halfway over, 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.560 and you were probably going to see spring pretty pretty soon. 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:16.520 So that is the initial um, the initial way that 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:20.520 February two kind of plays into this whole thing. So 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:24.160 you know what my problem with this is is uh, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:25.880 and you you put this one together and you kind 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.560 of came up with some other signs found in nature 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.480 and different cultures where they sort of looked to um 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.040 the natural rule to kind of tell the future, like 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.520 the widths of the bands of a wooly caterpillar, the 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.040 size and number of webs a spider might spin in 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.920 the fall, um, how the squirrels are gathering gathering their 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:50.440 nuts like would you frantic or calm? Or when the 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.880 geese depart from the north, how thick corn husks are 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.720 at harvest, like I love all that that stuff because 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:03.000 to me that is like pre science science. Um, yeah, 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.120 I think all of that stuff is kind of rooted 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.360 and some maybe it might be a reach for some, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.160 but some sort of scientific basis, and it was just 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.800 from people observing, which was sort of the first science 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.160 was observation. But to me, this one is the least 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:21.240 scientific of them all the because it's just one day. Yeah, 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.200 it is, like it is. It's just one day, Like 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.719 if it's February. Second, if it's candle moss and this 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.800 is the condition, then that's your indicator. So yeah, I 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:35.280 guess it is the least unscientific pre science measure of 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.640 of what's the most Yeah, it really is. It really is. 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.120 It's on par with drowning a person as a witch 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.800 because you're your prediction for the the winter didn't come true. 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:50.280 The wooly caterpillars bands didn't pretend the future after all, 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.760 because there's probably something I don't know about the caterpillar, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.600 but I bet you there's some little nugget of science 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.640 in there as to how their bands grow depending on 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.200 whether Yeah, I like the celt stuff. Oh man, that 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.480 there reminds me. So I read this article in The 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.600 New Yorker not too long ago, um, and it's about 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:09.920 we got to do an episode on it. There's this lake, 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.800 a little lake way up in the Himalayas, in the 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.040 middle of nowhere, in this really dangerous pass, and there's 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.360 always been a bunch of skeletons jumbled together at the 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.680 bottom of this lake, and you can clearly see them. 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.800 So anthropologists went in and grabbed these these skeletons or 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.040 some of them to take samples. And it turns out 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:32.240 some of them seem to be from southern Italy, um, 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.480 maybe even from Greece, from the Mediterranean. They have no 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.680 business whatsoever. Where is it up in the Himalayas, like 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:43.080 in Nepal right on just along uh I think a 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:47.840 Hindu or a Buddhist pilgrimage path um, and like it's 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.120 just really bizarre that they're there. But the author took 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.160 some time to just kind of go off on the 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.120 side and talk about how there was the spread of 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:01.440 this group from the steps of Russia uh many many 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:05.240 thousands of years ago. They basically brought the Indo European 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:10.160 language our way. But also we're super patriarch article, super 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:14.280 rapey um, super murdery and they really had an impact 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.080 you can tell a lasting impact today and how just 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.960 humans operate. But apparently in Western Europe and including the 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:24.680 British Isles, the Celts seemed to be much more peaceful, 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:29.360 much more egalitarian. UM women held much more powerful roles 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.880 than than they did under this other group. And it 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.040 really kind of drove home like wow, like history could 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.440 have gone a totally different direction, and like where would 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.240 we be right now if that other group had to 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:42.480 come out of the steps and dominated the rest of 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:47.760 Europe and just basically change this like um fertility worshiping 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:54.960 nature cult into you know, this hierarchical, patriarchical, um, murderous 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:02.040 civilization that's basically Western civilization today. I think the people 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.360 in the movie Midsummer would agree with you. That was 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.000 a given movie that I kept thinking about that as well. 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.600 During this of course, I watched that again and had 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.160 a better feeling about it. I love it the first time, 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:18.240 some crazy folk core man like it is really something else. 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:20.880 I haven't only seen it once. I need to see 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.800 it again. Well, maybe you won't like it the second time. 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.840 I hope that's not true, but it's possible. All right, 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:28.760 here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna take a break, 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.440 we're gonna regather ourselves, and we're gonna bring it back 0:16:31.440 --> 0:17:02.120 to February two right after this. Chuck, all right, So 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.320 we set up what was going on back in the day, 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:10.639 and groundhog Day is just something that survived from that 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.800 ancient practice. Back then, especially in Germany, they had a 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.359 tradition of waking up a badger not probably not a 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.920 good idea, and seeing if it will crawl back into 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.119 its borough to see if it was a sign of 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.440 bad weather ahead, and then that eventually makes it over 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.879 to the United States. Some people in Pennsylvania that settled 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:34.240 Pennsylvania took that idea adapted it to groundhogs I guess, 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:39.080 because there were more groundhogs and badgers, and started looking, 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.960 uh at these groundhogs coming out and whether or not 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.080 they would see their shadow, whether or not the people 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.600 would see the shadow. It was the Germans who came 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.239 over who said, well, wait, there's no badgers, so how 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.480 are we going to tell about the whether there's winter 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.240 left or not? And they said, well, groundhogs will do, 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:59.000 I guess, And and the fact that like they were 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.440 present and then brought the superstition with them that was 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.679 based in this combination of badgers coming out of their 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:09.280 borrow and going back and then candle Boss and the 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.879 fact that there weren't any badgers and groundhogs will have 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.199 to do. That's where groundhog Day came from, in that 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.960 bizarre it is. But if you really want to talk 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.800 about groundhog Day and what we'd know as groundhog Day, 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:27.439 that's sort of goofy fun um money making scheme that 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:29.640 they came up with. Is it can be traced back 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.880 to one dude uh February seven, the very first groundhog 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:40.880 Day celebration UM was created by climber Freeze F. R. E. A. S. 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:46.520 The editor of the Punk Satani Spirit newspaper and Punk 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.960 Sutani is about eighty miles from Pittsburgh, Um there in 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:54.080 western Pennsylvania. It's a coal mining town and it's a 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.160 very small town. I think it's indigenous name from the 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.760 Native American People's was Town of the sand Flies. The 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.760 LENNAPPI did they have sand flies? I guess, I don't 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:08.840 know why else the Lennappy would have called it that. 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:12.080 And I was like, sand flies don't sound great. Sand 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.960 Flies are terrible. Not only does their bite hurt, but 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:19.280 they spread all sorts of diseases too, and punks Punks 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.760 Attorney basically means sand fly town, So I guess there 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:23.680 was a real sand fly problem there at some point, 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.440 But there's no sand western Pennsylvania. Did they have sand there? 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:29.720 I think a lot of the United States was marshy 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.480 before we started developing it, so there's probably a lot 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.359 of marsh around Western Pennsylvania at the time. I thought 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.920 they just might have really liked the settlement. And it's 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.840 be like naming something like the bed bug or something. 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.320 Isn't that why Iceland is called Iceland? And that the 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.520 old story that they basically wanted to make people either 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.640 that or else. They settlers of Greenland wanted to make 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.520 Iceland look bad and Greenland look good, so they called 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.560 Iceland Iceland something like that. I mean, that's one of 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.280 the first little things you hear in elementary school from 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.520 that guy. Did you know that Iceland is green and 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.080 Greenland is? I said, I remember, I remember giving that 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:08.480 kid a weggie. Oh wait, I was the kid who 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.199 got the wedges. Okay, makes a lot more sense. So 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.760 here we are in seven and climber Freeze has stumbled 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.840 upon a great little money maker to bring thousands of 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.399 people to his town to spend money. Actually, he he 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:27.119 started a year before that, just ever so briefly. He 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.359 just as the publisher of the punks Autawny Spirit. He 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:34.159 published a line that said, today is groundhog Day, and 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:36.520 up to the time of going to press, the beast 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.159 has not seen as shadow. And the fact that he 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:43.760 doesn't spend any time explaining what he's talking about suggests 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:46.760 that it was already pretty well established, at least in 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.199 the town of punks Autawny at the time, probably in 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:54.320 western Pennsylvania what with their large German and large groundhog population. 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.720 Um and that was it. That was the first mentioned 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.119 in a newspaper in America of groundhog Day. And because 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:07.040 groundhog Days was specifically American invention based on ancient Celtic 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:11.080 in in German traditions, uh, this would be the first 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:13.479 time in the world anyone ever mentioned it in the paper. 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.520 So he plants that seed. He wants to get a 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:19.840 buzz going. He's like, I'm gonna tease this out over 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:22.640 a year. No one's gonna know what's coming. No one's 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.080 gonna know. It hit him in seven and in that 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:29.560 year that he was sort of the idea was brewing. 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:33.600 He founded he got some folks together groundhog hunters and 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:38.040 called it the Punk Suitani Groundhog Club that would become 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:42.159 that in eighteen ninety nine. And they were groundhog hunters. 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.720 Groundhogs were pest and they would go around kill groundhogs. 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.760 Apparently they would eat them. It was a delicacy that 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.400 they served to out of towners at first, I guess 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.080 Jenny Biggs just to see if they died. And then 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.520 the locals started eating groundhogs, which I can't imagine taste 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.680 very good. But that's hilarious that the tradition of groundhog 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:08.160 Day grew out of these people eating groundhogs like groundhog hunters. 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.280 Terrible but also hilarious. And the fact that they served 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:13.440 them two out of towners first, also, it just really 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:18.080 gets me. But this this Punk's Tony Groundhog Club. Um, 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:23.119 they held the first um groundhog Day in seven, as 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:25.560 you were saying before, And I don't I could not 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:30.120 find to save my life why they chose Gobbler's Knob. Um. 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:33.520 But there may be a clue in why Gobbler's Knob 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:37.320 is named that. There's two um possible reasons given. One 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:39.800 is that I guess it was a hangout for turkeys, 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:44.119 which okay, great um or it was the place that 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:49.080 traditionally groundhog hunters or hunters of any woodland animal would 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:51.280 kind of come out of the woods to this hilly 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.600 area and eat what they had just caught, or cook 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:57.199 and eat what they just caught, possibly having picnics in 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.000 the area. So it would make sense that the ground 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.400 Hog Club would go to Gobbler's Nob where they would 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:06.280 normally eat groundhog if this was already associated with groundhogs 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:08.399 in that way. But either way, that's where they helped 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:13.360 your risk. Yeah, picturesque and um bloody, yeah, but I mean, 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:15.000 you know, it makes sense to have a thing. There's 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:17.480 what I'm saying, right right, so right, yeah, it is 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.919 quite beautiful. But that's where the first Groundhog Day in 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:24.840 seven was held, and it has been basically ever since. 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:26.479 I mean, there was a stretch here there where they 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:28.879 didn't do it, but as they were first starting to 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:31.119 get their footings. But I think from the turn of 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.760