http://ianbek.kg/?p=4738 Observations from an expat Sat, 16 Aug 2014 06:45:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.4 http://ianbek.kg/?p=4738&cpage=1#comment-706 Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:28:14 +0000 http://ianbek.kg/?p=4738#comment-706 46 I believe. It was Doha hot, but thankfully not Doha humid. With global warming and climate change, all those old farmers’ (sailors’) prognostications may need to be revised. Groundhog Day in the U.S. (Feb. 2) is a relic of the pagan holiday Imbolc (midwinter) carried by Europeans to the U.S. As with all things pagan, signs given by the earth are to be interpreted for human benefit, weather being one of them. By definition, at midwinter there will be 6 more weeks of winter, but the behavior of hibernating animals (more typically the bear, not a rodent) could be read as to whether the winter will continue to be harsh or if the weather will be more spring-like. I think it’s based on the same kind of folklore that gives us “snow begets snow.” There is no scientific basis for Groundhog Day because it is a tradition imported from Europe to the East Coast of the U.S., which features a much different (and less stable) climate than the mother countries.

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