Michael Snow wrote:
For those not familiar with this particular bit of
American culture,
today is Groundhog Day. It occurs to me that the movie of this name is a
good metaphor for Wikipedia at times. So to celebrate the tradition and
create this experience for yourself, I might suggest you spend the day
trying to edit articles like [[George W. Bush]] or [[Arab-Israeli
conflict]]. Then crawl back in your burrow and figure out how to spend
the rest of your winter.
<announcer voice>
Your Wikipedia forecast for today: Morning calm, changing to edit wars
by afternoon with a chance of blocking, especially in the Washington,
D.C. area.
</announcer voice>
--Michael Snow
Interesting...
I did not know what Groundhog Day was...
I took the opportunity to go see...
Curiously, I thought, this is the same day than what we call in french
Chandeleur (
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandeleur).
in french, there is a saying
Si la louve se met au soleil, le 2 février : six semaines d'hiver derrière.
If the female wolf goes in the sun on the 2nd of february : 6 more weeks
of winter will come.
I thought "it sounds like the Groundhod stuff"
I went to look for the english version of Chandeleur. It is called
Candlemas (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlemas).
It says it is a Christian feast commemorating the purification of the
Virgin Mary and the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple.
And sure enough, the candlemas article mentions that candlemas
celebration evolved in the USA and Canada in... the Groundhog Day...
-----
It is quite funny to see how similar traditions evolved in such a
different type of celebration :-))))
In France, we of course celebrate it with food !!!
So, if you do not feel like editing George W. Bush tonight, it is time
to prepare the crepes (they are eaten at dinner and must be prepared 2
hours before). See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepe.
Happy Chandeleur !