Groundhog Drama - It's Groundhog Day!

Punxsutawney Phil

Groundhog Day is popular in the US. If the groundhog sees his shadow, it's another six weeks of winter. If he doesn't spring comes early. 

Here's what the History Channel has to say: (http://www.groundhog.org/groundhog-day/history/)

If he sees it, he regards it as an omen of six more weeks of bad weather and returns to his hole.

If the day is cloudy and, hence, shadowless, he takes it as a sign of spring and stays above ground.

The Groundhog tradition has it's roots in "Candlemas Day," from early Christians in Europe: 

According to an old English song:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, Winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.

According to an old Scotch couplet:

If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
There'll be twa (two) winters in the year.

Another variation of the Scottish rhyme:

If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
The half o' winter to come and mair,
If Candlemas day be wet and foul,
The half of winter's gone at Yule.

When Pennsylvannia's settlers started moving into the state, most of them were German and found a lot of groundhogs. The groundhogs resembled the European hedgehog and they began groundhog day.

The most famous groundhog has to be Punxsutawney Phil.

Other US Groundhogs:

Woody in Howell, MI

Sir Walter Wally, Raleigh, NC

Chattanooga Chuck, Chattanooga, TN

French Creek Freddie, French Creek, WV

Gus, Athens, GA

Buckeye Chuck, Marion, OH

Question for you: Do you believe in Groundhog Day?  Did you see the movie? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

My latestest release is A GENTLEMAN AND A ROGUE, Book 2 in The Windsor Diaries. 

Reviews: "I was hooked in it and did not want it to end. All of you romantic historical fans don’t miss this one – it is a winner." - 5 Stars, Trudi LoPreto for Reader's Favorites

ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS:

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BARNES & NOBLE (NOOK)

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AMAZON (KINDLE:)

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Review for Philippa Gregory's: The Lady of the Rivers

Book Review for: "The Lady of the Rivers"
Written by: Philippa Gregory
Simon & Schuster Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-4165-6370-9
Avail: print, ebook
4 Stars

Gregory spins a story full of greed, betrayal, danger, love and loss with "The Lady of the Rivers," book three in her "Cousins' War" Series. The novel tells the tale of Jacquetta Woodville, the mother of Elizabeth Woodville, who was the wife and Queen of Edward IV.

The novel opens with a young Jacquetta exploring her gift of sight under her grandmother's tutelage. family is responsible for the custody of Joan of Arc. Jacquetta soon learns it isn't wise to openly display her gift of sight after watching Joan of Arc burned at the stake.

John, Duke of Bedford and Regent of France, marries Jacquetta, hoping to put her talents to good use. Jacquetta meets a young squire, Richard Woodville. A fondness grows between her and Richard. John takes Jacquetta to England where she meets his nephew, the King of England, Henry VI. John dies and Jacquetta marries Richard. She becomes a member of the Queen's court. As Henry VI descends into madness, dare Jacquetta call upon her gifts to foretell what will happen to England?

Gregory brings history alive in a rich, vibrant, emotional, and personal way that engages the reader and keeps them turning the pages. She's done her research and it shows, but she's also taken fictional liberties with some of the events. What I like is that she blends fact and fictional effortlessly and she paints the situations in such a way to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. For me, the best part of her writing is how she lets the characters' humanity shine, good or bad.

The book is written in the present tense from Jacquetta's perspective, which I found a bit disconcerting, as I prefer the past tense, but it not take away from storytelling.

"The Lady of the Rivers" is a fascinating story about a complex woman that had the ear of the men and women who defined an age.

Twick or Tweet - History of Halloween

All right, so this picture doesn't embody the traditional Halloween "thingies" but it is kinda' spooky. It's downtown Budapest at night, and central Europe is still alive with storie of things that haunt the night.

With Halloween around the corner, I'd thought I'd look into the history of the spooky holiday.

Halloween has it's roots in an old Celtic harvest festival which took place at the end of the Celtic year called "Samhain." During this night it was believed that spirits returned to Earth to destroy the crops and play tricks on the living. Celtic Priests, known as Druids would sacrifice harvested crops to the gods to help keep these spirits away.

By the 800 AD, the Christian religion found the Celtic people. They brought "All Saint's Day," in an effort to exert their influence, thus "All Hallow's Eve" was born and was shortened to Halloween.

In the 1800's, the Irish immigrants brought Halloween with them to the US. It's through all these previous influences, that Halloween has grown into the holiday it is today.

A couple of interesting Halloween facts:

After Christmas, Halloween is the 2nd highest grossing retail holdiay in the US.

Harry Houduni died on Oct. 31, 1926. He was stabbed during a trick, I believe and didn't seek treatment for his injuries.

Samhainophobia is the name of the phobia for Halloween.

The Irish used to carve jack-o-lanterns out of turnips!

One quarter of the candy sold annually is for Halloween night.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/30/the-history-of-halloween_n_321021.html

Have a great Halloween. Anyone want to share what they want to be? I'm still looking for my costume. I want to wear a Star Trek the original series uniform. hehe. My boy Andrew is going to be the headless horseman and my son Joe is Wow Wow Wubzzy.

Smiles
Steph