Peter Carruthers
This is my second reflection on the meaning of the 2nd of February and my first article of Lent, which begins today. There is a connection between the two, as will be revealed below!
“Groundhog Day is a tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and sees its shadow, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early” (Wikipedia).
As we saw in my last article, the festival coincides with astronomical midwinter and the first day of Celtic spring, and with the Christian Feast of the ‘Purification of the Virgin’. By the 5th century, the custom of lighting candles (and later blessing and donating them) to commemorate the latter became established, and the feast became known as ‘Candlemas’.
The coincidence of the two events1 led to various weather-lore sayings and rituals, based on the belief that the weather on Candlemas determines the weather for the coming weeks. A sunny Candlemas means another 40 days of cold and snow; a dull, wet day means spring had arrived.
If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come, Winter, have another flight; If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Go Winter, and come not again.
Customs then developed centred around the behaviour of animals that sleep during winter, such as hedgehogs, bears and badgers.
For example, a German weather rhyme translates as:
If the badger is in the sun at Candlemas, he will have to go back into his hole for another four weeks.
And a French one as:
If it is fair weather on Candlemas, the bear returns to its cave for six weeks.
“In the 1800s, German immigrants to Pennsylvania brought their Candlemas legends with them. Finding no badgers, but lots of groundhogs (also called woodchucks or whistlepigs), they adopted the New World species to fit the lore” (Almanac).
The first official Groundhog Day celebration in the USA took place in 1887, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Now, although the town is home to just 6,000 people, every 2 February tens of thousands of spectators attend Groundhog Day events in Punxsutawney (History).
Outside of those places in North America that celebrate it, Groundhog Day is probably best known for the eponymous Hollywood film, released in 1993.
Like Little Gidding, albeit in a very different way, the film muses on time and eternity, on the seemingly endless cycle of the humdrum and mundane, on the “dismal sequence of past, present and future”. If Little Gidding resolves the dilemma through faith, then Groundhog Day resolves it through virtue.
The central character, Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, is a world-weary, cynical, arrogant, narcissistic, and quite obnoxious, weatherman, working for a Pittsburgh TV station, who travels to Punxsutawney to cover its famous Groundhog Day festivities. Significantly, on this occasion, the groundhog sees its shadow, meaning there are another 40 days of winter to come.
Immediately after the celebrations, he is anxious to return to Pittsburgh. But he is trapped by a blizzard (which he failed to predict), and is forced to stay in a local hotel. He wakes the next morning to discover it is 2 February, again. The same thing happens the next morning, and the next and the next. Phil is trapped in a time loop. He is condemned to live Groundhog Day over and over.
In his analysis of the film, Roman Catholic theologian, Michael P Foley, sees this as symbolic of all our lives (without Christ).
“Phil’s situation is unique, yet the movie hints that it is not unrelated to our own quotidian lives. Commiserating with two locals over beers, Phil asks, “What would you do if every day was the same, and nothing you did ever mattered?” The men’s faces grow solemn, and one of them finally belches, “That about sums it up for me.” Phil’s preternatural plight bears a twin resemblance to ours: first, as a symbol for the Fall, with its “doubly dying” estrangement from God and return to the vile dust from whence we sprang; and second, as a symbol for life in the wake of postmodern philosophy.”
As Phil realises he can do anything without any consequences, he uses the loops to indulge in more and more extreme self-indulgence and hedonism, in excessive eating and drinking, one-night stands, robbery, and dangerous car chases. All this is enabled by his increasing ‘omniscience’ and his apparent ‘immortality’, which mean he can manipulate people and circumstances to his advantage. However, despite all this, he is unable to seduce his sweet-natured producer, Rita (played by Andie MacDowell).
In the next phase of the story, he becomes increasingly depressed and desperate to escape the time loop. He commits suicide in various ways, even kidnapping the groundhog (known as ‘Punxsutawney Phil’) and driving them both off a cliff. But he wakes up the next morning as usual.
In the final phase of the story, prompted by Rita, who is finally convinced of his situation, he starts to use the time loops for good, to help others rather than indulge himself, to love his neighbour rather than just look to his own interests. As Michael P Foley puts it, “he begins pursuing excellence… he cultivates moral virtues (eg saving a choking victim), intellectual virtues (reading Chekhov), and a proficiency in the arts (playing the piano)”. But there are limits to his ‘powers’: despite every effort, he is unable to prevent a homeless old man from dying of natural causes.
Especially, he realises his feelings for Rita have become sincere, and she eventually reciprocates (as he becomes kinder, and, hence, more attractive). Even if he is trapped in the loop forever, he declares, he is at last happy because he loves her.
Only then does he wake up on 3 February.
‘Groundhog Day’ is intended as an entertaining and amusing story, but with philosophical undertones. And it has been heavily analysed from Christian, Jewish, Bhuddist, Nietschean, and other perspectives. From a Christian viewpoint, it can be interpreted as a simple story of repentance and redemption, of ‘dying to self’ and ‘rising to newness of life’.
But there are limits to Groundhog Day as a ‘Christian’ film.
Michael P Foley (quoted above) sees it as a “deeply Catholic movie”, but “not perfect”. “Rita’s final ‘redemption’ of Phil, for instance,” he writes, “results in their sleeping together the next morning. (Call it the incense that had to be thrown on the Hollywood fire.) Also, despite promising hints, Phil’s turn to God is underdeveloped and falls short of a full religious conversion”.
Evangelical writer, Joe Carter, is even more cautious.
“Believers from almost every religious background consider the comedy to be spiritually meaningful—even though no one agrees on exactly what it means”. The reason the film “resonates with so many diverse traditions”, he goes on, “is because it reveals a universally received aspect of common grace”.
“We are, as God designed us, ‘hardwired for virtue’. We may try to escape, but like Phil, we are not free to make our lives anything we want. If we want to live a happy life, we are limited by the constraints of such virtues as love, integrity, honour, courage, hope, and so on.”
But, as Carter continues, virtue cannot save us.
“Phil achieves a type of sanctification, but it comes without redemption. He responds appropriately to the prodding of a God-given conscience, which leads him to become more virtuous. But without the redeeming blood of Christ, his virtue will ultimately be for nothing…. Only the uncommon grace of Jesus Christ delivers us from the futility of life alienated from the One who numbered our days (Job 14:5).”
Foley’s caveats and Carter’s criticisms are valid and important if we were tempted to see the film as an authentic account of Christian conversion. But neither’s cautions detract from the simple, symbolic significance of the story, and from its timeliness just now.
There has been much speculation about how long Phil spends in the time loop, with estimates ranging from two weeks to hundreds of years. Roman Catholics might wish to see it as a metaphor of purgatory and, hence, favour the higher end of the scale. However, the setting of the story on Groundhog Day, and the fact that the groundhog sees its shadow and returns to its hole, thus inaugurating another six weeks of winter, makes a strong case for (at least a symbolic) 40 days, ie quarantine, a Lenten fast.
And, as I read this morning, ‘God’s chosen fast’ is not meant to be about giving up chocolate, but about repentance from our own self-centredness and exploitation of others, extending care and kindness to the oppressed, the hungry, and the poor, and honouring the Lord (Isaiah 58:1-14). Maybe, as we embark on 40 days of Lent, Groundhog Day has something to teach us?
Contemporary commentators (eg here) are often keen to point out and ‘reclaim’ the 'pre-Christian’, pagan origins of Christian festivals that coincide with astronomical, meteorological and biological times and seasons, such as Candlemas. The Christian church, it is argued, simply adopted and ‘baptised’ these, they argue, and, in our post-Christian Western culture, it is time for paganism to take them back. In an ironical way, they are aided by those Christians who also argue that most Christian festivals, including Christmas and Easter, are pagan in origin, and should be kept at a distance or avoided altogether.
Thank you for some great ideas on edifying things to do for Lent
Thank you so much Peter for these excellent articles. So inspiring!