Posted: 1/30/06
CYBER COLUMN:
Groundhog Day, Holy Day
By Brett Younger
The true measure of a family isn’t how they celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas. Everyone knows how to eat turkey and decorate a tree. The real test is Groundhog Day.
Every year for the last 12, our family has gathered on Feb. 2 to watch the romantic comedy Groundhog Day. Bill Murray plays a self-centered Pittsburgh weatherman covering the Groundhog Day Festival in Punxsutawney. To his astonishment, Phil finds himself trapped living his least-favorite day of the year over and over. This combination of It’s a Wonderful Life and The Twilight Zone may not seem like the most heartwarming tradition, but after 12 viewings, our family will be quoting lines in unison.
| Brett Younger |
“This is one time when television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”
“There’s a major network interested in me.”
“That would be the Home Shopping Network.”
“Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster?”
“I don’t think so, but I could check with the kitchen.”
“I’ll give you a weather prediction. It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be gray, and it’s gonna last the rest of your life.”
“Have you ever had déjà vu?”
“Didn’t you just ask me that?”
“What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same and nothing you did ever mattered?”
“That about sums it up for me.”
As is often the case, the silly and the sacred aren’t far apart. Phil finally figures out that the only thing he can change is himself. If he’s to win the heart of a kind woman, he will have to become kind. The questions posed by Phil’s predicament are spiritual. What would it take to make an ordinary day into the best day of your life? If you were trying to convey your love to a genuinely caring person, what might you change about yourself? How do we break out of living the same day over and over?
Like Thanksgiving and Christmas, too many people don’t appreciate the sacred beginnings of Groundhog Day. This holy day began—and I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know—with Candlemas. This festival, which Christians started celebrating in the fourth century, commemorates the presentation of Jesus in the temple 40 days after his birth (Feb. 2). When the prophet Simeon saw the baby, he said, “Mine eyes have seen your salvation … a light for revelation.” For more than 1,500 years, the followers of Jesus have been lighting candles on Feb. 2 to symbolize Jesus coming as the light of the world.
The groundhog portion of the tradition (if he sees his shadow, winter is six weeks from ending) is founded on an old Scottish couplet:
“If Candlesmas Day is bright and clear,
There’ll be two winters in the year.”
So next Thursday, wish everyone “Happy Candlemas,” write a Groundhog Day carol (my son Graham did this once, but asked me not to mention it), pretend your sausage biscuit is groundhog, quote some Scottish poetry, bring a candle by your church to have your pastor bless it (like they do in Germany), eat crepes (like the French do, but only after 8 p.m.), cancel your boat trip (like superstitious sailors do), watch a movie (like the Youngers), or just thank God for the light that helps us see the silly and sacred gifts that are new each day.
Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life, available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016. You can e-mail him at byounger@broadwaybc.org.
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