Wiarton Willie is a bonafide Canadian hero, no doubt of that. But he has yet to star in a heavy duty movie like "Groundhog Day", so Phil is still the King. Another great Groundhog is Shubenacedie Sam. Groundhogs have been accurately predicting the weather ever since pre-Columbian times. They are absolute masters of The Craft, and they spend no time worrying about cynical morons who cannot appreciate their brilliance.

Eliza - Groundhog Day is a secular holiday which has largely replaced the ancient religious festivals that were once observed in early February all over North America by Christians and Native religions alike. Those festivals go back in the Christian tradition right to Roman times, and before that to the pre-Christian traditions in Europe as well, and they all have to do with the promise of light and warmth one day returning to the land to end the depth and darkness of winter. This was seen as a sacred promise to people in times when life absolutely depended upon the new growing season and the return of warmth (as, in fact, it still does).

In the Christian religion, it marks the day, Feb 2, when Jesus was taken (as a young boy) by his parents to be officially recognized in the Temple in Jerusalem in an offering ceremony rather similar to the later baptism ceremonies. All Jewish boys had this ceremony in the same fashion in that culture.

Additionally, it was considered a time of Purification in Roman society, and was an important event for Romans. It is also identified with Jesus' mother Mary.

It was therefore once a festival with deep religious and symbolic meaning to the entire culture. It's now just a pleasant little "entertainment" event enjoyed by the media and a few small towns like Punxatawney and Wiarton...which helps generate some tourist dollars and publicity for them.

The new story is that when the Groundhog emerges from his hole on Feb 2nd (if he does)....that if he sees his shadow and gets scared and runs back down the hole, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. If he doesn't see his shadow, and stays out for a bit, there will be a short winter and an early spring.

It's a cute story, and most people like it, because Groundhogs are cute. Those who don't like it are a bunch of sour old killjoys who don't even deserve to be called "jadrools", because they are a bit lower on the human scale than a jadrool. They're more like on the level of decaying old smegma or something similar to that...definitely way past their due date.

Willie and Phil have nothing but contempt for these cretins and Philistines.