and
Hedgehog Day
In
an earlier post, I wrote about today's main U.S. holiday, Groundhog
Day. This is the day that an overlarge rodent comes out of his hole
and supposedly predicts the weather. (If it's a clear day and the
groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter; if
it's cloudy and the groundhog doesn't see its shadow, spring is
almost here.) I didn't realize that this holiday got started in
ancient Roman times, but with an entirely different animal: the
hedgehog!
On
the night of February 2, in Roman times, a hedgehog is brought out of
its burrow to see if there is a moon-shadow. The shadow-spotting and
weather-forecasting was probably a nighttime event because hedgehogs
are nocturnal, which means that they sleep during the day and are
active at night.
It
is natural enough that people who celebrated this custom in Europe
changed from hedgehogs to groundhogs, because there are no hedgehogs
native to North or South America. (Nor are there hedgehogs in
Australia. But there are 17 different species of hedgehogs in Europe,
Asia, and Africa.)
Neither
hedgehogs nor groundhogs live in Alaska, but Alaska marmots do! (In
order to honor their own native ground squirrel, Alaskans have
swapped out Groundhog Day for Marmot Day.
(Actually,
groundhogs are a kind of marmot. Alaska marmots are a different
species of marmots.)
Alaska
marmots, like many other marmot species in the world, live in rocky
areas and eat grass, flowering plants, berries, roots, moss, and
lichen.
Also
on this date:
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