No, Groundhog Day Is Not of Ancient Pagan Origin

As you may or may not know, February 2nd is known as “Groundhog Day” in North America because there is a popular superstition that, if a groundhog comes out of his hole on February 2nd and sees his shadow because it is sunny, he will go back in his hole and there will be six more weeks of winter, but, if he does not see his shadow because it is too cloudy, he will stay out of his hole and winter will be over soon.

Every year, at the site of Gobbler’s Knob in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, a widely-publicized ceremony is held in which a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil is brought forward by members of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club dressed in tuxedos and top hats.

The president of the Inner Circle then pretends to listen to Punxsutawney Phil, who allegedly tells him in a language that only the president can understand known as “Groundhogese” whether or not he has seen his shadow. The president of the Inner Circle makes a pronouncement of whether there will be an early spring or six more weeks of winter. It’s all a very silly affair and very few people, if any, actually think the groundhog can predict the weather.

Naturally, there are people insisting that Groundhog Day is of ancient pagan origin. This is, of course, entirely wrong; there’s really nothing ancient or pagan about Groundhog Day as we know it today. Nonetheless, people today are obsessed with trying to connect all modern holiday customs back to ancient paganism. People like to believe that the traditions we have today are ancient. In reality, though, most modern holidays customs are products of only the past few centuries.

The opening paragraph

There are plenty of articles online claiming that Groundhog Day is of ancient pagan origin. For instance, just a couple days ago, an article titled “Yes, Even Groundhog Day Has Pagan Origins,” written by Jessica Morton, was published on the website The Mary Sue. The first paragraph of the article reads:

“You should know by now that all the good parts of holidays have origins in Pagan and pre-Christian traditions. Easter eggs and bunnies? Pagan. Christmas trees and Santa? Pagan! But did you know that one of the weirdest American traditions, Groundhog Day, also has pagan roots? No? Well, we got you, babes. Let’s explain.”

As someone who studies actual ancient pre-Christian cultures, it really gets on my nerves how the media is constantly reinforcing the idea that all of our modern traditions are of ancient origin, even though the vast majority of them are not.

I suppose, first of all, before I even talk about Groundhog Day itself, I should point out that there’s actually nothing pagan about Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, Christmas trees, or Santa Claus. I’ve written about all these things in previous articles, but I’ll quickly summarize the points I’ve made previously, just because the article I’m debunking mentions them.

Easter eggs and the Easter bunny

As I explain in this article from April 2017, the association of eggs with Easter is first attested in western Europe in the High Middle Ages (lasted c. 800 – c. 1250 AD). Medievalists believe that the association arose as a result of the fact that, at the time, Catholic Christians were forbidden from eating eggs during Lent, meaning Easter was the first time they were allowed to eat eggs after Lent. The custom of painting eggs for Easter did not arise until even later. Easter eggs, then, are of medieval Christian origin.

The association of bunnies with Easter did not arise until even later. As I explain in the same article, the earliest known reference to the Easter bunny comes from the book De Ovis Paschalibus written in Germany by Georg Franck von Franckenau in 1682. There is no mention of the Easter bunny prior to this. Furthermore, there have been a whole variety of different Easter-egg-deliverers, including an Easter fox and an Easter stork. The Easter bunny just happens to be the one that is best known today.

ABOVE: Postcard from 1907 depicting a rabbit with the words “Loving Easter Greeting”

Christmas trees

As I explain in both this article from December 2018 and this article from December 2019, there is no evidence of any pre-Christian custom involving people decorating evergreen trees for any kind of midwinter holiday. There’s a passage in the Book of Jeremiah 10:1–5 that some fundamentalist Protestants think is a prohibition against decorating Christmas trees, but that passage is actually a prohibition against carving wooden statues of deities other than YHWH.

The earliest evidence for the custom of decorating Christmas trees comes from western Europe in the late sixteenth century. It is likely that Christmas trees actually originate from the “Tree of Paradise,” a representation of the tree from the Garden of Eden in late medieval mystery plays. Christmas trees did not become popular in the English-speaking world until the nineteenth century. Queen Victoria played a major role in popularizing the tradition.

Santa Claus

As I explain in this article from December 2019, the idea of Saint Nicholas as a secret gift-bringer comes from a famous legend about the Christian saint Nikolaos of Myra first attested in a Byzantine hagiography written in the Greek language in the ninth century AD by a man named Michael the Archimandrite. The custom of parents leaving gifts for their children in the name of Saint Nicholas originated in western Europe in around the fifteenth century.

The character of Santa Claus is we know him today is mostly a product of the nineteenth century. Some people have tried to claim that Santa Claus comes from the Norse god Odin, but there is virtually no evidence to support this. The only things Odin and Santa have in common are that they both have beards and they are both associated with flying steeds. Odin’s flying steed, however, was the eight-legged horse Sleipnir; whereas, Santa’s flying steeds are the magic reindeer that pull his sleigh.

Furthermore, the whole idea of Santa riding in a sleigh pulled by reindeer is first attested in the anonymous poem “Old Santeclaus with Much Delight” published in New York in 1821 and the idea of Santa’s reindeer flying is first attested in the poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore, published in New York in 1823. I seriously doubt that Clement Clark Moore was thinking of Odin when he wrote his poem.

ABOVE: Thirteenth-century Byzantine icon of Saint Nikolaos of Myra from Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, Egypt

Candlemas and Imbolc

Ok, now let’s see what the article I referenced earlier has to say next. A little bit later, the article declares:

“It [i.e. Groundhog Day] comes from the Christian festival of Candlemas or St. Brigid’s day, which was itself an assimilated pagan holiday which the Celts called Imbolc. Imbolc, which falls at the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, is the beginning of spring in the Celtic calendar. It’s associated with the return of light to the world after the darkness of winter, and so it’s also a day that honors the Celtic goddess for light and fire, Brigid. Brigid was, like Imbolc, absorbed into Christianity and became ‘Saint Brigid.’”

Most of this first part is actually correct. Groundhog Day really does originate from the Christian holiday of Candlemas. Likewise, Imbolc is a real Celtic holiday that most likely has some kind of ancient pagan origin. It is even likely that some regional Irish and Scottish traditions historically associated with Candlemas may have been influenced by some aspects of pre-Christian Imbolc celebrations.

The problem with this passage is that there is almost no evidence to suggest that Candlemas itself as it is celebrated internationally is a Christianized version of Imbolc and there is, in fact, quite a bit of evidence to suggest the opposite. The fact is, Imbolc is only first attested in Old Irish literature in the tenth century AD; whereas Candlemas is attested in Latin texts as far back as the fourth century AD.

In other words, we have records of Candlemas being celebrated roughly six centuries before the earliest attestation of Imbolc. It is likely that Imbolc was probably celebrated in some form before the tenth century, but it is highly unlikely that Candlemas was invented as Christian version of Imbolc. Imbolc and Candlemas most likely fall on the same day due to them both having ties to the traditional date of the winter solstice, which, in ancient times, was often said to fall on December 25th.

The reason why Candlemas is traditionally celebrated on February 2nd is because it is the celebration of the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem, an event described in the Gospel of Luke 2:22–40. The Book of Leviticus 12:2–8 commands that every woman must undergo her ritual purification forty days after giving birth to a male infant. Thus, Candlemas falls on February 2nd—exactly forty days after Christmas.

As I explain in this article from November 2019, Christmas is most likely celebrated on December 25th because December 25th is exactly nine months after March 25th, which, in ancient times, was believed to be the date when the angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary to tell her she would bear a son.

Imbolc, meanwhile, has historically been celebrated on February 2nd because this date was traditionally thought to be the midpoint between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. It is forty days after the traditional date of the winter solstice and forty days before the traditional date of the vernal equinox. Thus, Candlemas and Imbolc both fall forty days after December 25th, but for different reasons.

Candlemas was first celebrated by Christians living in the Roman Empire in late antiquity; whereas Imbolc has historically been celebrated by Gaelic-speaking peoples in Ireland and Scotland, neither of which was part of the Roman Empire in the fourth century. It is hard to imagine why Christians in the Roman Empire would be copying a holiday off Gaelic-speaking pagans from what they would have seen as the distant outskirts of the known world.

ABOVE: Byzantine illustration from the Menologion of Basil II, dating to c. 1000 AD, depicting the presentation of the infant Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem. Candlemas falls exactly forty days after Christmas in celebration of the purification of Mary and the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

Imbolc and Candlemas traditions

The article from The Mary Sue continues as follows:

“On that Brigid’s day, celebrants would light candles (hence Candle Mass), make beds for Brigid to visit and bless their house, make offerings to her … and engage in weather divination. Weather divination was vitally important to, well, just about everyone who relied on farming to survive back in the day. Especially before the industrial revolution, peasants all over would be pretty into knowing when spring would come and if their crops would fail or thrive. There are lots of methods, but one associated with Imbolc was about not Brigid, but a different goddess: Cailleach or Beira, the Celtic Goddess of Winter.”

The way this passage is worded makes it sound as though this was how Imbolc was celebrated in ancient pre-Christian times, but it’s actually mostly a description of how Imbolc was celebrated in Ireland during the Early Modern Period (lasted c. 1450 – c. 1750), the difference being that, during this time, Brigid was seen as a saint, not a goddess.

In other words, the author of the article simply assumes that the holiday must have been celebrated the same in pre-Christian times as it was in Christian times, but this is a poor assumption. In fact, it is likely that most of the traditions the author names actually come from the Christian holiday of Candlemas and were only later subsumed as aspects of the celebration of Imbolc, since many the traditions the article names (e.g. the lighting of candles, weather divination) have been historically practiced in many non-Celtic countries.

The article goes on to declare:

“It is said that on Imbolc, Cailleach goes to gather her firewood. The legend states that if she wants to linger longer in the world before retreating for the year, she will make the day bright and sunny, so she can gather more wood. Therefore, if Imbolc is sunny and an animal, like a badger, snake or, say, groundhog, peeks out of a winter burrow and sees their shadow, that means winter will last longer.”

The article provides no sources or documentation for this claim, however, and I can find no ancient or medieval sources that say this. This sounds like a modern Neopagan tradition that the author of the article has simply assumed must be ancient. If anyone knows of a specific ancient or medieval source that claims these things, you are welcome to share that information in the comments below.

In any case, as the article itself eventually goes on to admit, the American tradition of using a hibernating animal coming out of its burrow to tell whether there will be an early spring or a long winter actually originates from Germany—not Ireland or Scotland. We’ll look at the real origins of Groundhog Day in a moment, but, first, let’s examine another claim about Groundhog Day’s alleged ancient pagan origins.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of people making Saint Brigid’s crosses at a site near the village of Liscannor, Ireland for Saint Brigid’s Day (i.e. Imbolc)

Candlemas and Lupercalia

Another story that tries to give Groundhog Day an ancient pagan origin can be found in the current version of the Wikipedia article “Groundhog Day,” which makes the following claims:

“In fact, the Christian Candlemas itself was an assimilation of the Roman rite for the goddess Februa with a procession on February 2, to honor her, according to Yoder. The Roman calendar, in turn, had Celtic origins.”

The errors here are quite startling. First of all, “Februa” wasn’t even an actual Roman goddess; the author of this passage was probably thinking of Iuno Februalis, a form of the Roman goddess Iuno associated with the festival of Lupercalia. There was also a male personification of the month of February known as Februus that the author of this passage may have been thinking of.

In any case, Februa was actually a later name for the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was actually a three-day-long festival lasting from February 13th to February 15th. (I will be writing about Lupercalia some more later this month in an article about how Valentine’s Day isn’t pagan either.)

The assertion that the Roman calendar “had Celtic origins” is just blatantly wrong. The Roman calendar has Latin and Etruscan origins, with some significant Greek influence. It is possible that there may have some limited Celtic influence on the Roman calendar at some point, but the calendar itself was certainly not of “Celtic origins.”

The festival of Lupercalia dates back to very early in Roman history. It was at the Lupercalia in 44 BC that Marcus Antonius famously offered Julius Caesar a crown, which he refused. That famous celebration of the Lupercalia alone dates to roughly a thousand years before the earliest attestation of the holiday of Imbolc.

ABOVE: Illustration from John Clark Ridpath’s History of the World, published in 1894, depicting Julius Caesar refusing the crown offered to him by Marcus Antonius at the Lupercalia festival in 44 BC

The Wikipedia article’s implied claim that Lupercalia is derived from Imbolc is just ridiculous. If anything, it was the other way around, since the earlier Roman calendar had far greater influence on the Gaelic calendar than any Celtic calendar ever had on the Roman calendar.

In any case, the idea that Candlemas was created as a Christian replacement for the Roman holiday of Lupercalia originates from a conjecture by the Italian cardinal Caesar Baronius (lived 1538 – 1607) in his Annales Ecclesiastici based on the fact that the ancient Christian holiday of quadragesima Epiphaniae, often seen as an early form of Candlemas, was celebrated in the eastern Roman Empire on February 14th—forty days after Epiphany rather than forty days after Christmas.

The problem is that, as William M. Green points out in this article from 1931, Candlemas itself could never have been celebrated in the west on February 14th, since it comes forty days after Christmas and, ever since the fourth century, Christmas in the west has always been on December 25th. Aside from the date, there is little evidence to support a link between Candlemas and Lupercalia.

ABOVE: Seventeenth-century engraving of Cardinal Caesar Baronius, who is responsible for speculating that Candlemas may have been created as a Christian replacement for the Roman holiday of Lupercalia—speculation that is now known to most likely be incorrect

The true origins of Groundhog Day

We have no attestation of any custom associated with the Roman holiday of Lupercalia that involved using a hibernating animal coming out of its den as a predictor of whether or not winter would continue. Indeed, we have no attestation of any such custom associated with Imbolc or Candlemas for that matter until much later times.

By at least the seventeenth century, though, a popular superstition had arisen that, if the sky was clear on Candlemas and the Sun was shining, there would be more winter to come. The English writer Thomas Browne (lived 1605 – 1682) quotes an old Latin saying to this effect in his book Pseudodoxia Epidemica, which was originally published in 1646. Here is the Latin saying:

“Si Sol splenescat Maria purificante
maior erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante.”

Here is my own translation of the couplet into English:

“If the Sun shines on the Feast of the Purification of Mary,
there will be greater ice after the festival than there was before it.”

Versions of this saying are also attested in English, French, German, and Scots. Later, in around the eighteenth century, the idea arose in German-speaking lands that, if a badger comes out of his hole on Candlemas and lies out in the sun, there will be four more weeks of winter, but, if the badger comes out of his hole and finds it is too cloudy to sunbathe, he will go back in his hole and winter will be over soon.

A farmer’s almanac titled Der Angewandte Fresenius: Oder Sammlung Geordneter Allgemeiner Witterungs Und Sogenannter Bauernregeln, printed in Austria in 1823 by Joseph Arnold Ritter von Lewenau, contains the following saying in the German language:

“Wenn sich der Dachs zu Lichtmeß sonnt, so gehet er wieder auf vier Wochen in sein Loch.”

Here is what the saying means in English, in my own literal translation:

“If the badger sunbathes himself on Candlemas, so goes he again for four weeks in his hole.”

Versions of this same saying are also attested in later German written sources.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a European badger. In the German tradition, the animal used for predicting whether winter will last longer is not the groundhog, but rather the badger.

The birth of Groundhog Day in the United States

A variant of this superstition was brought over to the English colonies by the Pennsylvania Dutch in around the eighteenth century. Among the Pennsylvania Dutch, the badger become replaced with a groundhog, the number of weeks winter would last became extended to six rather than merely four, and the determining factor of whether winter would last longer became whether or not the groundhog saw his shadow rather than whether or not the badger decided to sunbathe.

The following saying in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect of the German language is preserved through quotation by the folklorist Thomas R. Brendle (lived 1889 – 1996):

“Wann der Dachas sei Schadde seht im Lichtmess Marye, dann geht er widder in’s Loch un bleibt noch sechs Woche drin. Wann Lichtmess Marye awwer drieb is, dann bleibt der dachs haus un’s watt noch enanner Friehyaahr.”

This means, in my own translation:

“When the groundhog sees his shadow on the Candlemas of Mary, then goes he again in his hole and stays there for six weeks more. But, when the Candlemas of Mary is drab, then the groundhog will remain outside his house and there will be another spring.”

It was in 1887 that Climer H. Freas, the editor of the local newspaper The Punxsutawney Spirit, seeking to attract more attention to the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, declared a random groundhog who later became known as “Punxsutawney Phil” the United States’ official forecasting groundhog. He began devoting extensive coverage to Punxsutawney Phil’s alleged predictions in his newspaper, making more and more outlandish claims each year about the groundhog’s supposedly miraculous predictive powers.

Eventually, other newspapers starting picking up on the story of Punxsutawney Phil, seeing it as a way to sell more newspapers. Over the course of the twentieth century, the groundhog ceremony in Punxsutawney became increasingly famous. It was the 1993 film Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray as a disgruntled weatherman trapped in a time loop in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on February 2nd, that turned Punxsutawney Phil into an international legend.

ABOVE: Photograph from The Washington Post of Punxsutawney Phil being raised up before crowds of journalists and adoring fans at the 2020 Groundhog Day celebration at Gobbler’s Knobb in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania

Conclusion

Despite what many people would desperately like to believe, the modern tradition of Groundhog Day is not of ancient pagan origin. The tradition originates from early modern German Candlemas folklore. This folklore was brought over to the United States by the Pennsylvania Dutch and was popularized by newspapers in the United States in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries looking to sell more papers.

Punxsutawney Phil is a product of the capitalist age, not a holdover from ancient pre-Christian religious traditions.