This news item expired on Monday, February 28, 2005 so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.
Bring on the birds, the flowers and…last but not least…the sunshine! Spring is on its way! On Wednesday, February 2, Gus the Groundhog did not see his shadow at the WNC Nature Center giving citizens the news they were so hoping for.
As owner Carlton Burke, who is also the Exhibits Curator at the Center, gently set Gus on the frozen ground, an estimated crowd of over 75 people cheered. “Did anyone see Gus’s shadow? Anyone? I didn’t. Let it be now official. Spring is on the way!” Burke exclaimed.
Even though the entire nation has become familiar with “Punxsutawney Phil” of Pennsylvania. Gus is our local celebrity and as a local fully understands the weather patterns in the mountains.
According to legend, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on February 2 and sees its shadow, it will run back underground and there will be six more weeks of winter. If it comes out and no shadow is seen, then we will have an early spring.
The groundhog’s shadow seems to come into play because of beliefs brought to America by our European ancestors who watched hibernating animals such as badgers and bears. They noticed how the animals disappeared just before winter and then suddenly reappeared months later as spring began to return.
When these animals disappeared into the ground it seemed to them that it was almost as if they had died. A hibernating animal is in a deep, coma-like sleep, and when they emerge in the spring, it is as if they have suddenly been reborn and renewed.
Europeans placed the symbolic reference of an animal’s shadow as being its dark side. When the animal retreats underground, its shadow or dark side disappears and it sleeps the sleep of death. If it awakes in the spring and emerges to see its shadow, then its dark side is still with it and it must return back underground to complete the purification process.
If it emerges and its shadow is not there, then the animal has successfully been reborn and spring will soon happen. When these people began settling North America, they applied their beliefs to the abundant groundhog, which is one of our few mammals that truly hibernate in a deep sleep throughout the winter.
Bring on the Spring!!