Nova Scotia winter forecaster, Shubenacadie Sam, peers around his enclosure after being released from his pen, in Shubenacadie, N.S. on Saturday February 2, 2008. The groundhog did not see his shadow, predicting an early spring.Tim Krochak/The Canadian Press
When it comes to Groundhog Day, apparently, we can never get enough.
Wiarton, Ont., has Wiarton Willy. Punxsutawney Pa. - site of the 1993 movie Groundhog Day - has Punxsutawney Phil. Alliteration being the preferred form in animal nicknames, there's also Brandon Bob in Brandon, Man., Balzac Billy in Balzac, Alta., Shubenacadie Sam in Shubenacadie, N.S., and Gary the Groundhog in Kleinburg, Ont.
And lest we forget, there's Staten Island Chuck in New York, General Beauregard Lee in Lilburn, Ga., and the oddly named Two Rivers Tunnel on Cape Breton Island.
For years - more than a century, in the case of Punxsutawney Phil - North American communities have deployed the irrepressibly cute Marmota monax, otherwise known as a woodchuck, to predict, allegedly, the arrival of spring.
On Feb. 2, if the rodent emerges from his subterranean burrow, sees his shadow and returns, then - according to legend - winter will deliver its icy blast for another six weeks. On the other hand, if the day is cloudy and no shadows appear, spring will arrive early.
Now, Gagetown, N.B., site of a Canadian Forces base east of Fredericton, wants in on the burgeoning groundhog game.
In tandem with the New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission, meteorologists at CFB Gagetown are sponsoring a competition to name a provincial groundhog. New Brunswickers aged five to 18 have been invited to submit suggestions by Jan. 27.
Gagetown Gus, anyone?
Lee Ellen Pottie, executive director of the NBPCC, says she was approached last summer by base officials with the idea of creating a local groundhog day.
"They have a lot of groundhogs on the base and they've identified one in particular," she said. "They know where he's hibernating."
Ms. Pottie and base meteorologist Bernard Rousseau will jointly decide the winning submission.
In the meantime, they've created a bilingual Facebook page - Operation Marmotte and Operation: Groundhog - from which an entry form can be downloaded.
The contest winner - and the groundhog's name - will be announced at a public ceremony on Feb. 2, complete with food, hot chocolate and a pipe and drum band. The winner will receive a VIP tour of the base, a gourmet lunch (vegetarian, of course) and demonstrations of flight simulators and light armoured vehicles.
If the yet-to-be-named groundhog declines to co-operate with the event and remains underground, officials plan to insert mini video-cameras into the lair to detect movement and use that as the basis for the prediction.
Although Groundhog Day organizers everywhere like to insist on the general accuracy of their unconventional forecasting methodology, studies have shown that most groundhogs are right less than 40 per cent of the time.
The use of animals in weather divination is thought to derive from an ancient Celtic ritual, Imbolc, that was later absorbed into Christian practice as Candlemas Day, also known as the Purification of the Virgin, traditionally celebrated on Feb 2.