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Groundhog Day Meaning

|< < Prev #3202 (February 2, 2026)

Title text: Originally, the ceremony used a variety of rodents and mustelids, but over time most people agreed it made sense to standardize on a specific individual ground squirrel in Pennsylvania.

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Explanation

This comic was posted on Groundhog Day, February 2nd. Cueball is shown explaining the holiday to Black Hat.

Groundhog Day originates from German weather lore about the behaviour of badgers (among other animals) on the Candlemas holiday observed on 2 February. This tradition was brought over to the new world by German emigrants and turned into a superstition regarding the behavior of a groundhog (a type of rodent). Supposedly, if the groundhog does not see its shadow, the spring thaw is predicted to happen shortly thereafter. If it does see its shadow, it is frightened and retreats into its burrow, and six more weeks of winter await. The most famous prediction each year, broadcast across the U.S., has come to rest on a specific individual groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, in Pennsylvania.

Groundhog Day is also the title of a 1993 film starring Bill Murray. In the film, Murray's character is trapped in a time loop centered on Groundhog Day; no matter how his day ends — whether by falling asleep at the end of the day or dying somewhere during the event — the world, and everyone around him, resets to that same morning. However, Murray's character retains all memories of the previous day. In English-speaking cultures the movie has become synonymous with the plot element of a time loop. The film has previously been featured in 1076: Groundhog Day.

The title text refers to the process of standardizing measurement units, which typically involves forming a consensus among many people from a wide range of places. Basing a weather prediction on rodents (such as groundhogs) and mustelids (such as badgers) is ridiculous to start with, and basing it on a single individual (who may be thousands of miles / kilometres away) is even more so. As with most attempts to unify standards, while most people may have settled on one, there are still many holdouts who continue to cleave to their preferred system.

Transcript

Cueball: Historically, it refers to a ceremony to predict the weather using a rodent.

Cueball: But nowadays people often use it to mean "a time loop experienced by one person."

Black Hat: ...what.

[Caption below the panel:]

Easily our weirdest holiday.

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