Say a prayer for Groundhog Day.
It is nearly here and so we pray
for a swift delivery of the Day.
Say a prayer for Groundhog Day.
It is toDay. and so we pray
for swift deliverance from the Day.
When does it start?
It has no end
Be off now and leave us!
Join me, friend
Time stands still in ice and snow
Groundhog this day prepares to rise
Watcher waits in growing crowd
Insurer hawks then laughs aloud
Weatherman gives up and flies
Buyer twists, controls, all-wise.
Days ago the Groundhog rose
Watch your step, Broccoltoe.
The movie Groundhog Day is a modern setting of the timeless archetypes described above. Remember from you childhood books, plays, lullabies? These are where the tarot comes from.
It tells of a woman (Rita Hanson in the movie), the Buyer, who learns a secret of freezing time.
One day in her travels she decided to freeze time for everyone who enters and does not leave the town she's in. She explains the situation to one person, the Insurer (Ned Ryerson), and engages them to bring more people into the orbit of her power.
A visiting quack who claims to be a seer, the Weatherman (Phil Connors), is drawn to town by an almost magnetic force (Punxsutawney Phil), intending to move on quickly. The Insurer, seeing a chance to ingratiate with the Buyer, tells the Weatherman that they are old friends, as a trick to make him stay the night.
Perhaps most mysterious of all is the Watcher (Larry). They follow the Weatherman in his travels, who is never kind to them. The Watcher becomes friendly with the Buyer; what does the Watcher see and know?
All the holidays have their set traditions. Some traditions are valuable, in connecting us to the past and the future. Some connect us to the past and future but maybe not in valuable ways — in some places, some of the big-name holidays have been thoroughly coopted by Big Sugar and Big Retail, who tell us "your favorite tradition is to buy and eat junk".
And some of the more superficial traditions (as opposed to those rooted in caring for land and/or community, perpetuating knowledge and wisdom, etc) were started by someone. Christmas trees as they're known in the United States (where your correspondant writes from) trace back to a handful of royals in the mid-18th century, and especially Queen Charlotte, whose daughter Victoria kept the tradition going, and whose popularity in turn encouraged its spread.
How cool to be a source of holiday traditions, starting closer from scratch than "part of this holiday is giving gifts, and in my family starting with my kids we'll do present opening such-and-such a way"!
But the relatively few holidays recognized by name (at least here in the U.S.) have their traditions set. Except for Groundhog Day! It's free for the claiming!