February 3, 2010: A Story of Yesterday: The Pagans and the Angry Pope, a Timid Groundhog and Getting Stuck in Vegas

Bonjour!

Today's is about yesterday, about Groundhog Day in the US and Canada, about the feast La Chandeleur here in France, about an angry Pope, and maybe about getting stuck in Vegas... Wait for it... !

Yesterday Punxsutawny Phil saw his shadow at Gobbler's Knot, PA, so we are evidently in for 6 more weeks of winter. (Or not - his accuracy rate is in the 30-40% range.) Made famous either before or after the great Harold Ramis film of 1993, the groundhog we will hereafter refer to as P-Philly is famous. (Or maybe it is just a relative of P-Philly because groundhogs normally have an expectancy of only 6-10 years, and that film was 17 years ago, ok, ok, I'll let it go!)

Why is he famous? Where does this weird idea come from? The groundhog phenomenon is said to have begun in Pennsylvania, in the 18-19th century (real precise here, I know! ... and I won't even get into WHY the groundhog seeing his shadow gets us more winter, instead of less. If he sees his shadow that means there's SUN, right? But who am I to argue with tradition?) And the tradition here goes way back... In Europe, the Celtic, Scandinavian, and Germanic peoples evidently kept an eye on badgers and bears to see whether Nature would warm up for them or continue to brood. So the Pennsylvania institution can most likely be traced back to Europe.

So let's look at Europe. Yesterday was celebrated here in France also, La Chandeleur, or Crêpe Day. I like the crêpe aspect of course (in Mexico, it is celebrated with tamales). Crêpes, yummy pancake like treats often filled with the sweet or the savory - and tamales too, for that matter - are welcome in my world. It is said that crepes were offered as sustenance to travellers and pilgrims on the original feast day. What was the original feast day, you ask (and bravo for your intellectual curiosity!) Imbolc, the pagan feast day still celebrated by many on February 1: the seasonal turning point of the Celtic pagan calendar, which celebrated the stirring of the earth after its winter slumber toward spring, towards life renewed. Imbolc falls on February 1. The word february comes from the Latin februum meaning purification, stemming from an ancient Roman feast of purification (held in February, of course). So we are going further and further back in time.

THAT ancient feast day also has a relative in ancient Greece as a celebration of the release of Persephone, Goddess of Light and the fertility of Spring, forced to spend the winter in Hades (hence also the Goddess of the Underworld) with her kidnapper/husband. She was released each year under the agreement negotiated by her mother Demeter who was by all standards an excellent Mother/Goddess of Life, squaring off against Zeus himself and descending into Hades with a torch to get her girl back! For another day, that story!

So we see these traditions endure, despite best efforts of institutions like my own Catholic Church to squelch them. For 500, these pagan traditions carried on out in the open as Christianity moved across Europe, which had the Church really annoyed. So somewhere around 495ad, a really pissed-off Pope named Gelase I decided to do something about it. He decided to effectively put pagan ritual celebrations out of business by co-opting them into Catholicism, an incredible sort of "beat 'em by joining 'em."

So to replace Imbolc, the angry Pope came up with not one, but two ideas. The feast day of the now-SAINT-Bridget was set for February 1 (Bridget, or Brigid, was the Celtic goddess of fire and fertility and Imbolc was her feast day.) Good idea.

The second idea was a stroke of brilliance: Pope Gelase created the Catholic feast day of Candlemas (okay, maybe not so successful: who celebrates this?). The idea was to celebrate the purification of the Virgin Mary (effectively stealing Brigid's thunder the day after, and taking care of the Roman pagan feast as well) AND the presentation of baby Jesus at the temple. A two-fer holiday! The firstborn boy of any family back there and then was supposed to be presented at temple 40 days after his birth. Jesus' family followed this custom, according to the Bible, Luke 2, 21-24. So counting back, this Pope decided to back up his story by setting the official Church Christmas Day at December 25. 500 years after Jesus died.

This does not diminish the importance of Christmas for me, and December 25 is as good a day as any to celebrate the wonder. But I wonder now, what were they so afraid of? Imbolc was replaced by the Candlemas-Christmas connection also for celebrating the idea of Mary's purification as a Virgin. So were they afraid of women? Sensuality? What?

This was not the only pagan feast that was suppressed at the time, either! The pagan feast of Lupercian, a feast of love and fertility where women were celebrated and lovemaking was feted in ritual, was also replaced by the Church in 495ad by you-know-who. Lupercian was celebrated - perhaps is still celebrated, I don't know, wouldn't quite be my thing - on February 15. This was also the date of the Roman februa. Guess what replaced it? The Feast of Saint Valentine, on the 14th, also fixed by Gelase (which is starting to sound like the french word for frigid, gelé.)

Back to the point, right: the idea of winter as a season of slumber, of stillness emerging into fertility in spring goes wayyyyyyy back. Before the Church, before memory. It is still celebrated, albeit perhaps unknowingly by people the world over. It permeates our cells, our very being. There is a stirring towards life, an impulse: an urge toward growth that moves through us at this time.

Even when I was too busy to respect the winter hibernation/slowdown time, Nature stepped in and forced me to do it. Many, many flights on trips for business or pleasure (Chicago, SO many times I felt like I lived in O'Hare, and Vegas, one memorable time) were canceled in winter as I made my way about. I had to sit still and deal with it. Nature stopping me in my tracks, forcing me to stop.

These days, I relish the winter and its journey to quiet center. This year, it has been rich, a blessing for which I am grateful. (I shovel no snow as I live in an apt., for which I am also grateful.) But yesterday is yesterday's news.

And today, with love in my heart for the scared and powerful Pope Gelase I, I release the winter and move forward into my spring, regardless of what P-Philly had to say.