The Holiday of Imbolc

Today Celts around the world celebrate Imbolc, the midway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.

Groundhog Day is an adaption of that ancient Gaelic festival during which Cailleac, the hoary hag, decides how much longer winter will last. A nasty day means that the bad weather is almost over and today in New York is a wintery day of mixed sunshine.

Tomorrow I will light a candle at St. Patricks' Cathedral in honor of St. Brigid, the Hibernian goddess of poetry and healing. The more candles the faster comes the spring and if that doesn't work then I'm going to drink a little wine.

It's an old tradition.

New here, but then now is the time for the awakening of the cosmos.

ps Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.

Six more weeks of winter.

Forty-two days.

Today was one of them.

Punxsutawney Phil

Yesterday Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his hole to signal spring's arrival in six weeks. Thousands of people without any real purpose in their life showed up in the Pennsylvania town to celebrate the old German holiday and organizers stated that the furry rodents' forecasts are accurate 75% to 90% of the time. More interesting is that my nephew Matt posted an article questioning how much time Phil Connors from GROUNDHOG DAY spent repeated February 2. The film's director Harold Ramis had answered 8 years, 8 months, and 16 days, although one critic of this estimate questioned if you could become a pianist in ten years and broke down the time sequence as follows; Day 1: Groundhog Day Day 2: The first repetition Day 3: The fixed pencil Day 4: Punching Ned Day 5: Deceiving Nancy Day 6: Robbing the bank Day 7: Seeing Heidi 2 with a French Maid Days 8-12: Engineering the near-perfect date Day 13: The bad perfect date Days 14-21: One for every slap Day 22: “Phil you look terrible!” Day 23: Jeopardy Day 24: “This is pitiful!” Days 25-27: Breaking the alarm clock Day 28: Kidnapping Punxsutawney Phil Day 29-31: Phil’s suicides Day 32: I’m a God! Days 33- 35: First piano lessons Day 36: Sexually harassing Ned Day 37: Looking after the homeless man Day 38: The final Groundhog Day ps Bill Murray is capable of anything.