Phil: “OK, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties cause it’s cold out there. It’s cold out there every day.”
The story about America’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, is well known. Each Feb 2, Phil emerges from his burrow, and looks for his shadow.
According to legend, if he sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter are in store. If he doesn’t see his shadow, there will be an early spring.
The origin of Groundhog Day can be traced back to a holiday called Candlemas Day. Each year, on the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, candles were blessed and distributed to help people get through the winter days. Tradition claims that if Candlemas Day was sunny and clear, winter would drag on.
Back in the 1880’s, farmers depended on the activity of animals to help predict the weather. There were no weather satellites, no barometers no scientific instruments for prognostication. Instead, German folklore relied on the hedgehog.
When German immigrants began to settle in Pennsylvania in the 1880’s, custom adapted to use the more common groundhog. Tradition stuck and continues to this day.
So who would have thought a movie about a Groundhog would be a big success? If you were a betting man, the odds would be less than the weatherman’s prognostication record – which is 50/50 over a 10 day period.
BUT… here’s the deal
Many people believe the 1993 fantasy-romantic comedy-drama-is one of the best movies ever made – comparing it to classics like “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, in which Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by ghosts or to Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” when George Bailey played by Jimmy Stewart is visited by an angel who shows him what the world would be like if he had never been born.
As a matter of fact, The National Film Registry lists Groundhog Day along side the ultimate classics Casablanca and the Godfather. The film is being taught in religious studies classes, it was screened at the Museum of Modern Art as part of a series called “The Hidden God: Film and Faith. Students still write dissertations about the Groundhog for their advanced degrees.
THE MOVIE:
If you have never seen the movie, I won’t spoil your fun by describing all the details here – if you have seen the movie you might agree with me on Why the movie is/was so successful:
BECAUSE: It is a FEEL GOOD MOVIE.
At the end of the film, all the characters FEEL GOOD.
The two main characters Phil ( Bill Murray )and Rita ( Andie MacDowell ) are in love and FEEL GOOD.
More importantly, YOU FEEL GOOD too
From the SNOW Blizzard which initiates the Supernatural Time Loop to the SOFT Falling snow when the clock finally changes to a new day – February 3 – everything that happens in between changes from
Despair to hope, from dark to light, from selfishness to charity, from lust to love….The Day that at one time was the worst day of his life, now becomes the best day of his life-
The once obnoxious, opportunistic and rude Phil Connors transforms into the most popular person in town – the guy who saved the diner by doing the Heimlich, or performed mouth to mouth CPR on the old man, saved a kid falling from a tree, and lots more – you got to watch the movie – to appreciate the exploits of the hometown hero of Punxsutawney.
We, the audience, are cheering along with all the characters in the movie. Because we see ourselves as the
Every day people like the inn keeper, the piano teacher, the waitress in the café, the young engaged couple, the senior ladies with the flat tire, the man who chokes on his food, the old homeless man on the street, the insurance salesman, the guest in the Bed & Breakfast, the girl who is tricked into thinking Phil was her classmate, the two guys in the bar, the town organizers…
So what happens to change the worst day of Phil’s life into the best day of his life?
Groundhog Day provides a truly special gift to our hero – the gift of choice to make a change…no matter how long it takes….to become a better person….at the right time for the right reason.
Here’s a poem from Henry Van Dyke I wanted to share with you if ever you are caught in a time loop.
Time
Time is…
Too Slow for those who Wait,
Too Swift for those who Fear,
Too Long for those who Grieve,
Too Short for those who Rejoice,
But for those who Love
Time is not…