The Groundhog Who Stole Candlemas
“Candlemas” is a Western title for the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, February 2, when candles were (and still are) blessed for use during the coming year. “Candle-Mass”, like “Christ-Mass”. “A light to lighten the Gentiles”, old Simeon had said when he first saw the infant Christ. The ceremony is ancient and still common in the Slavic tradition. (Do any Greek/Antiochian Orthodox practice it? I wish we would. I never knew about it when I was a pastor.)
The title was written with apologies to Dr. Seuss and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. (Do people still read this to their children? I’m too old to know.)
In the East, this day popularly came to be called “The Meeting” – the Meeting of Christ with Simeon.
No matter, ask 999,999 out of 1,000,000 Americans “What’s February 2?” and you’ll hear “Groundhog Day!” To understand this, first we need to grasp the tail of the groundhog … (Forgive me, I couldn’t resist that, but Groundhog Day is so silly. It deserves a pun,) … to understand the tale of the groundhog.
The Ancient Origins of Groundhog Day
Early February is the midpoint between the beginning of winter * and the beginning of spring *, and we who live in northern climes are ready, more than ready, for winter to be over. Zero weather or not, the sun is starting to shine a little brighter and a little longer. Pagan pre-Christian Germans observed this time with a celebration called Imbolc (don’t ask), and their weather lore held that if a badger or sacred bear appeared, that would be the sign that spring would come soon. That made some sense. Many animals have a built-in sense of things like this. That’s the background of modern American Groundhog Day, to which we will return later in this article.
- the winter solstice, December 21 or thereabouts, and the spring equinox, approximately March 21
The Even More Ancient Origins of the Christian Feast of the Presentation
Then the great Christian feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple came along and overshadowed the sacred bear or badger. The origins of the Presentation go back to Old Testament times. The Law (Exodus 13:2) required that firstborn males be consecrated to God. They were presented in the temple on the 40th day after birth. This was part of the Old Testament pattern of offering the first of everything to the Lord.
By the way, brothers and sisters, this is still a good pattern for our charitable giving. We have practiced it from the beginning at Saint Nicholas, Cedarburg – each month 10% off the top to the Archdiocese and 10% more to charity. To this we attribute the fact that we have never had an unpaid bill. God or Saint Nicholas or somebody always comes through. “God never allows anyone to outdo him in generosity.” You ought to give it a shot.
Offerings were also made for the ritual “purification” of the mother. The sacrifice was to be two turtledoves or two young pigeons or, if they could afford it, a lamb. The Holy Family weren’t poor; craftsmen and carpenters aren’t usually poverty stricken. But neither were they rich, so they offered the birds. (Leviticus 12:1-8)
To this day in the West this feast is often called the “Purification of the Virgin Mary”. This certainly did not mean that the Virgin Mary was morally impure or that having babies was somehow indecent. God commanded mankind to “be fruitful and multiply”. But in Judaism (and in some other religions) there was a sort of ritual uncleanness after certain things associated with life forces: sex, childbirth, contact with blood, anointing the dead. This is very hard for us to understand, since for Christians “all things are pure”. Titus 1:15 In a slightly similar way we Orthodox fast from certain foods at certain times, but not because they’re evil.
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Luke 2:22-40) is one of the most ancient Christian feasts. Records suggest that it may have been celebrated even before Christmas was. It has a complicated history. We get the first information about it from Mother Egeria, a Spanish nun who in the late Fourth century visited Jerusalem and wrote a description of worship in the Mother Church. (Her account of Holy Week and Pascha is very interesting, even moving.) She said that in Jerusalem the Presentation was celebrated exactly 40 days after Christ’s birth, namely on February 14! because in the East Christmas and Epiphany, the Birth and the Baptism of Christ, were then observed together on January 6. Meanwhile, the Roman Church had their own date for Christmas, December 25, perhaps influenced by (or in order to counter) the pagan Roman feast of the Winter Solstice, Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. So in the West the date for the Presentation would come on February 2. In time, for reasons not clear, the Western dating spread East and prevailed, and eventually all Christians celebrated the Birth of Christ on December 25 and His Presentation on February 2. (Have you got all that?)
Patience, patience, groundhog lovers. We’ll get to the rodent in due time.
The Song of Simeon
The is much loved – sung at every Orthodox Vespers and regularly throughout much of the Christian world at various times. Here are five very different examples:
A traditional Byzantine melody:
Choir of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary (Courtesy of orthodoxchristianchants5006)
A contemporary (Twentieth Century) setting:
Traditional Western Plainsong
An early Twentieth Century Anglican setting:
The Saint Vladimirs Seminary Choir again.
A Feast with many meanings
All the Church’s Great Feasts are not only about what happened to people long ago, but also what happens to us now. This is especially clear in the feast of Christ’s Presentation.
We are the Theotokos: Christ dwells in us also. We carry Christ into our temple at every Liturgy. We are Christ Himself: We are the Body of Christ, the Church, and we are presented to the Father in this temple: At the Great Entrance each of us in spirit is carried up to the Heavenly altar under the forms of those little particles of bread on the diskos, and we are united with Christ’s Sacrifice. We also are Simeon. Here in the Holy Eucharist, we see and receive our salvation, Christ the light of the world, and now we can depart in peace.
The feast of the Presentation has yet another aspect. Since it falls approximately midway between Christmas and Pascha, it marks the end of the Church’s Nativity Cycle and the beginning of our Paschal Cycle. It is a sort of lovely 
“flashback” to Christmas. Though in our Sunday Scripture readings, Jesus has now long since begun His public ministry, now suddenly for a little while we remember Him as an infant again – as if that sweet memory is too precious to put away quite yet. And then we turn the other way. It is time that we must look towards Pre-Lent and Lent and Holy Week and the Cross – and finally Christ’s Holy Resurrection.
The Troparion for the Presentation expresses this clearly:
“Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos who are full of grace, for from thee shone forth the Sun of Righteousness, Christ who is our God, a light to those who dwell in darkness. Rejoice and be glad, O righteous aged Simeon, bearing in thine arms the Deliverer of our souls, who grants to us resurrection.”
Yet another aspect: The feast of the Meeting, in the northern hemisphere at least, also stands at the borderline between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, when we look forward to the death of winter and the resurrection of nature. One of our hymns will begin: “The Lenten Spring has come!” Even if there is still snow on the ground, the springtime of our souls is upon us, and soon the springtime of nature. Come, blessed spring!
I’ve gone on forever describing the feast of the Presentation, because it is so beautiful, so rich, so deep, with so many meanings, a jewel with so many facets. And also because it is such a loss that it is so neglected these days.
But this year it will not be neglected. February 2 falls on a Sunday. So now, this Sunday you will hurry to Divine Liturgy, filled with all this mystic knowledge, eager with Simeon to meet your Lord, to receive Him in the Holy Eucharist, so that you also may truly “depart in peace”.
Have you had enough of this serious talk? Good. Because now, finally and at last, we come to the story of:
How the Groundhog stole the Feast of the Presentation
The Presentation falls at about the time when the German badger or sacred bear emerged. This harmless custom apparently continued there through the Christian era. (Does it still?)
But what if the feast of the Presentation was no longer celebrated? What if people no longer flocked to church on February 2? That is what happened in most of northern Europe after the Protestant Reformation. Even in denominations where the feast was formally retained, in practice the churches paid little attention to it. However, people were so accustomed to having this winter-to-spring celebration on February 2. They took this ancient animal lore and transferred to that date. And then German Protestants brought it to America.
This presented a problem: Badgers and bears. Badgers are hard to come by, because they are rare reclusive nocturnal animals. I live in Wisconsin, the “Badger State” *, where everything is named after the badger: our University of Wisconsin football team (”Go Badgers!” – which they did not, last fall), Badger Coach Lines, Badger Cross Fit Gym, Badger Car Repairs, Badger Cleaners. (I always think there can’t be much call for that!) But hardly anybody has ever seen one. Nor do I care to. Badgers are nasty.They bite.
- Why? I just looked it up. Because early miners in southwest Wisconsin dug holes in the ground, just like badgers. Who knew?
Likewise, there are relatively few bears in Pennsylvania where the Germans lived. I read that Native Americans had (have?) some ceremonies involving them, but German immigrants wouldn’t know about that.
So in the late 1800s some Germans substituted the lowly rather repulsive groundhog, sometimes called the woodchuck, which can easily be found burrowing all over eastern North America – and they celebrated by pulling it out of its lair on February 2.
In the 1800s only a few churches in America cekebrated the Presentation of Christ: Roman Catholics, but they were then suspect and easily ignored. Orthodox in Alaska, so far away. Anglicans and Lutherans largely ignored the day. That left February 2 belonging to the Sacred Rodent.
Every February 2 the Groundhog Club of Punxutawny, Pennsylvania, sponsors Groundhog Day, with feasting and various other events, and they pull the poor animal – Punxutawny Phil, by name – out of the ground. It is said (for reasons I doubt even God knows) that if he sees his shadow there will be four more weeks of winter, and if he does not see his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. Or is it the other way around? No matter, it rarely works out, and no one takes this seriously. Nevertheless, sleepy displeased groundhogs are now disturbed in many places around the country.
And don’t think they lie it. A few years ago in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, in the center of Badgerdom, the mayor of the city held the groundhog – Jimmie *, by name – and the rodent bit him in the ear.
- The groundhogs all have male names. How do they know this? Chauvinism? I can’t believe they really…. well, never mind.
You need to see this:
Good! I’d do the same thing if someone dragged me out of my warm home at this time of year. Moral: Don’t hold groundhogs. Other than that, I think Groundhog Day in and of itself is harmless.
Though I do wonder what future students of American society will make of this. “Did they actually honor rodents as prophets? Did they worship them?” By our behavior on February 2, they would certainly never suspect that on that day we worship anyone else: Christ our God, for example.
Now, I don’t want to sound pompous about this, but I just wish all this groundhog commotion didn’t take place on February 2 – for here traditional Christianity once again bites the dust, this time overtaken by people venerating rodents. Instead of people flocking to church for the feast of the Presentation, people flock to watch groundhog holes!
Brothers and sisters, do your part to fight the rodent! Go to Divine Liturgy on the feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve got it easy this year: this great Feast falls on Sunday. And you can go to Divine Liturgy with all this mystic knowledge fresh in your mind.
Conclusion: Turn your heart and mind not down towards rodents being dragged out of their lairs, but towards Christ emerging by His own Power from His tomb – towards Holy Pascha and Jesus Christ our Lord and God “who grants us Resurrection”.
Next Week: The Virtue of Not Fasting
Week after Next: Happy Not Saint Valentine’s Day