Happy Belated Groundhog Day

Living in Kyrgyzstan, you lose track of rhythms of American life and forget about what is celebrated in the U.S.  That's why it didn't dawn on me until February 4th that I had totally forgotten about Groundhog Day, which is celebrated in the States on February 2nd.

For those of you unfamiliar with this peculiar and somewhat obscure observance, Groundhog Day is an event that traces its origins to Pennsylvania Germans in the 1840s.  They would have a winter's festival where they would observe the groundhogs living in burrows near their farms and communities.  If it was cloudy and the groundhogs didn't see their shadows and continued running around, then legend had it that spring would arrive early.  However, if it was sunny and the groundhogs saw their shadows and hurried back into their burrows, then a full and miserable six more weeks of winter would transpire.

It has occurred to me that Groundhog Day is a tradition that cannot be transported here to Kyrgyzstan.  All groundhogs burrows are encased in ice and frozen ground, and I suspect that it will not even be possible for any groundhog to possibly emerge from his or her frozen home until May, at the earliest.  So that's when it will be spring in the Kyrgyz mountains, regardless of what kind of shadow any creature unfortunate enough to find itself outside in the Kyrgyz winter might happen to witness on the second day of February.  As I sit and sip a steaming cup of tea, I realize that life is simpler when there is no possibility of Groundhog Day, as no rational person in this country could ever possibly harbor any illusion that spring could make an early arrival, groundhogs or not.