January 31, 2025
Groundhogs and Candles
This Sunday is Groundhog Day. The lectionary tells us it is the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany and The Presentation of Jesus, which is also known as Candlemas. So many choices! But Groundhog Day seems trivial in the context of the life of our church.
Yet, when I was growing up in the northern reaches of the Allegheny mountains, Groundhog Day was an important, local event. Punxsutawney, the epicenter of Groundhog Day, was south of where I grew and a bit east, just west of State College, Pennsylvania, where Penn State is located. This area I grew up in was once home to the Seneca Nation, whose famous Chief Cornplanter was an aide to George Washington and fought in the Revolutionary War. I mention this because it was commonly thought that Groundhog Day’s origins were our native Seneca friends’ use of a “groundhog shadow technique” to determine when to begin planting.
But Groundhog Day’s origins are actually in Christmas. Christmas Day, December 25, was established when it was thought that Jesus’ crucifixion was on March 25, and was it was believed that a good person would die on the day they were born. However, Jesus not having a typical birth was determined to have died on the day he was conceived. To this day many Christians celebrate the Annunciation on March 25, when Mary is told that she was pregnant by the divine work of God. Nine months later. December 25, you have Christmas.
But the story doesn’t end there. Eight days after his birth, Jesus was circumcised and named (Luke 2:21). So for Christians, January 1 is the Holy Name of Jesus. 40 days after Jesus was born, Mary was purified and Jesus was presented in the Temple, both being requirements of the Law (Luke 2:22-38). Likewise on February 2 for centuries Christians celebrated the last day of the Christmas season on the Presentation of Jesus. It was also called Candlemas, as people would bring candles to be blessed in the church that they might last through the remaining dark days of winter. Some churches still celebrate this day, but few retain the ancient 40 day Christmastide.
What does that have to do with groundhogs? The first days of February for the Celtic people in pre-Christian Ireland were days considered to be a turning point between winter and spring. Those that could divine such things would determine whether it was time for farmers to plant and fishing boats to go into the water. By the 16th century in England and Scotland we have statements blending this Celtic understanding with Candlemas saying if it was sunny, winter would continue (hence the need for blessed candles!), if it was not fair weather, brighter days were ahead. It was from Germany where we find that if a badger (like a groundhog, a hibernating creature) should see his shadow on Candlemas, he will return to hibernate for 40 more days. By the time all this landed in the new land of America, it became a groundhog instead of a badger.
This Sunday we will not be celebrating the Presentation of Jesus or Candlemas, or even Groundhog Day; so what is the point of this piece? It is to remind you that traditions are always in transition. Human practices and expressions change over time, and tried and true practices, even when done the same way for decades, tend to change their meaning over time. We celebrate Christmas very differently today in our country than we did a century ago. Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney today is very different than it was when I was young, for the most part because of the movie Groundhog Day (which is a story in itself). The holidays we celebrate and the rituals that attend them must negotiate both the tradition and their current context to remain relevant. And so, year in and year out we take changing rhythms of the church year and place them in the context of our current season of life, making the ancient message of the gospel relevant to a changing world. By doing this, with God’s blessing, might we become a bright candle to the world even in the darkest of days. Might this be the choice we make in this particular season.
Happy Groundhog Day to you all,
~ Pastor Todd