Reflections on a global Groundhog Day

Abstract

In my last Editorial I wrote about the need ‘to hope for the best whilst preparing for the worst’ in relation to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and social and political disruption in various forms around the world. I invited consideration about the role and relevance of the study of spirituality in such times. Six months later, with the UK several weeks into its third ‘lockdown’ in an attempt to slow further spread of the virus, many similar restrictions in place elsewhere, and dangerous political tensions still in evidence in places as far apart as Myanmar, Russia and the USA, I sometimes feel as though we have all become trapped in a global ‘Groundhog Day’. That term entered the popular lexicon of the English language as a result of the 1993 film of the same name in which the lead character, Phil Connors, is caught in a time loop which forces him to re-live the same day repeatedly. Many people living in lockdown conditions, unable to socialise outside their own immediate household or to travel further than the nearest grocery store, will undoubtedly be able to relate to the time loop image as they contemplate the apparently repetitive ‘sameness’ of each day. However, it is worth looking beyond the cliché that ‘having a Groundhog Day’ has become because the event which gave its name to the film, as well as events within the film itself, bear some relationship to the study of spirituality and perhaps point to its particular significance at the present time. The time loop in which Phil Connors becomes trapped centres on a small town called Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania, USA. As a television weatherman, Phil is there to report on a ceremonial gathering and ritual which takes place each year on 2nd February. Cynical and egotistical, he makes no secret of his contempt for this assignment and everyone in the town. Much of the film is about how Phil comes to terms with his relationships with others and learns to understand himself. The event on which the film is based is a real one: what is now known as Groundhog Day has been celebrated annually in Punxsutawney since 1887. It is the day on which a groundhog is woken from its hibernation, ostensibly to predict the weather. Tradition has it that, if the day is sunny and the groundhog can see his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; if it is cloudy, and he therefore has no shadow, there will be an early spring. The tradition appears to have been imported by settlers from Germany where hedgehogs (or badgers, depending on which version of the story one reads) were deemed to have the power of weather prediction. The date is significant because, in the northern hemisphere, it is poised between winter and spring. The division of the year into segments, marked by the apparent movement of the sun across the sky and the associated seasonal changes, is a common theme in all human cultures since planting and harvesting depend upon it. Falling mid-way between the winter solstice