FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:
Punxsutawney Phil will be all over the TV this morning. But how many viewers know Groundhog Day’s origins as one of the year’s four “cross-quarter” days? This one falls halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The Celts called it Imbolc, for “in the belly,” a reference to pregnant ewes. Christians morphed it into a feast day called Candlemas. They said that “if Candlemas be fair and bright, come winter, have another flight. If Candlemas bring clouds and rain, go winter, and come not again.”
(SUN PHOTO: Kim Hairston, 2008)