I've Got Two, Babe

February 2, 2022 7:34 AM

It’s Groundhog Day, again! Did you mean: Groundhog Day?

Celebrate with The absolute 10 best Groundhog Day movies
Just like last year, Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter.
Here's What Makes Groundhog Day a Spiritual and Philosophical Masterpiece

'Groundhog Day,' the Buddhist lifehacker movie
'Groundhog Day': The movie's final life lessons for getting through the end of the pandemic
Ned … Ryerson?!

[Previously, for DoublesJubilee]

posted by chavenet (16 comments total)

It's a cross quarter day, too: Six weeks both ways between Solstice and Equinox and Imbolc, the First Day of Spring by the old Celtic reckoning. Which makes sense to me: I don't know how it is where you live but the birds are beginning to sing in the morning here. Some of them, anyway. It'll definitely be on when the House Finches kick in 'cause they are the Best Singers.
posted by y2karl at 8:26 AM on February 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

Stephen Tobolowsky on how he, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis created this perfect moment.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:45 AM on February 2, 2022 [7 favorites]

I'm going to give you a prediction about this winter. It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey and it's going to last you for the rest of your lives!
posted by evilDoug at 8:47 AM on February 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

0h, no.
posted by clavdivs at 8:54 AM on February 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

There's also the Groundhog Day: The Musical Original Broadway Cast Recording, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. It was nominated for Best Original Score at the Tony Awards in 2017, but was up against some heavy competition in Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.
posted by brentajones at 9:22 AM on February 2, 2022 [4 favorites]

And this: ‘Groundhog Day’ TV series in the works, set 30 years after the film
posted by chavenet at 9:29 AM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

> And this: ‘Groundhog Day’ TV series in the works, set 30 years after the film

Is this Dark Season 4?
posted by kaibutsu at 9:43 AM on February 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

It would be appropriate for the Groundhog Day TV series be continuously in development.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:05 AM on February 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

And merciful, too.
posted by y2karl at 10:20 AM on February 2, 2022 [4 favorites]

While I do appreciate the gag in the 10 top Groundhog Day movies list, Groundhog Day movies are kind of a little mini-genre on their own and some of them are (imho) pretty good; just off the top of my head: Edge of Tomorrow (aka Live Die Repeat), Happy Death Day (and its sequel), and Palm Springs. Oh, and of course, TV Tropes has a listing for Groundhog Day Loop.
posted by mhum at 10:55 AM on February 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

How Long Is Groundhog Day?
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:33 PM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

I should watch Palm Springs. Again.
posted by krisjohn at 2:36 PM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Dare to Believe in a Magic Groundhog: One Morning in Punxsutawney
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:15 PM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

TIL the difference between Imbolc, Candlemas, and Groundhog Day.
Spoiler: They are not all the same thing, or even all the same day.
posted by dannyboybell at 4:08 PM on February 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Get ready to learn some more. I recall reading a fact article by Avram Davidson, which he wrote while editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, that stated the original day was Bear Day -- groundhogs and bears both being hibernating animals coming out of their cave or burrow and seeing their shadow yada yada same drill.

So, I finally looked up Wikipedia Groundhog Day. The tldr is the tradition is ancient beyond belief and that Bear Day was observed in Germany, Romania, Croatia and Serbia among other places. My favorite quotes therein:

...it was the second of February, that ancient Candlemas-day whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with the two lines, which have deservedly become classic:

'Qu'il luise ou qu'il luiserne, L'ours rentre en sa caverne.'

(Let it gleam or let it glimmer, The bear goes back into his cave.)"

– Hugo, Victor. Les Misérables.

The groundhog was once also known by the obsolete Latin alias Arctomys monax. The genus name signified "bear-rat".

Birds, snakes and badgers are also mentioned. But no lepids, thus denying me to say this really went down the rabbit hole.

So, Groundhog Day, May Day, Lammas Day and Halloween, the cross-quarter 1st days of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter respectively, are our most ancient of holidays.

Once again, the mind reels, the intellect stands abashed.
posted by y2karl at 11:37 PM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yes, Even Groundhog Day Has Pagan Origins
posted by theora55 at 10:38 AM on February 3, 2022