By Rylee Mathis Posted February 6, 2013
According to German tradition, if the sun comes out of Candlemas, the precursor to Groundhog Day, the hedgehog or badger will see its shadow and we will have six more weeks of winter. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how the Germans persuaded us to let a woodchuck decide how the weather would be for the next month and a half after the 2nd of February.
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray you’d know that the movie really doesn’t have a lot to do with this holiday. You’d also have a strange suspicion that they used the same fake groundhog from “Caddy Shack.”
In the movie, Murray’s character Phil is a weatherman forced to report the events of Groundhog Day in the town where it originated in Pennsylvania for the umpteenth time in his career. After the report, he tries to go home but a blizzard keeps him in town overnight. The next day he wakes up to see that it’s February 2 again and the day is going exactly the same as it did before. After a while, Phil starts to take advantage of being stuck on repeat. He tricks people and plays maniacal games until he gets tired of it and tries to end it all. Through numerous attempts of suicide and killing the groundhog, he still wakes up every morning to the time loop.
Finally, Rita, Phil’s co-worker suggests he try to do some good with what’s going on. Phil takes her advice and gets to know the townspeople and Rita better. With his knowledge of how the day will go, he also saves lives and helps many people. He gives a magnificent report on Ground-hog Day, seduces Rita and the loop is broken.
All I can say is that I wouldn’t have reacted to this as Phil did. I would’ve gone insane. Also, if the situation was fit for my life, I wouldn’t know what I’d have to do to break the spell or whatever. I’m kind of slow sometimes when it comes to most things and since real life isn’t a movie I don’t think the way out would be to fall in love, so it would be a while before I figured it out.
Fun questions for the day: How would you react if your life was stuck on repeat? What do you think you’d have to accomplish to get out of the time loop and better yourself?
