What is Groundhog Day?
Many newcomers to the English language may have heard this expression being used but not perhaps have been aware of its significance or its origin. Here is an extract from Wikipedia;
Groundhog Day … is a popular tradition celebrated in Canada and the United States on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog (in French – marmotte) emerging from its burrow on this day sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will persist for six more weeks, and if it does not see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early.
Although there is no evidence whatsoever to support the theory that the behaviour of said groundhog can predict the weather, it continues to be a popular event in parts of North America and was made famous in the brilliant and, in my opinion, hilariously funny, Hollywood film ‘Groundhog Day’ (1993) starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell. Click below to see a trailer for the film;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GncQtURdcE4
What is the film about?
‘‘I’m re-living the same day over and over…’’ says Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, after he wakes up yet again on the same day which he has previously lived a dozen or so time before. In the film, Phil plays a bad-tempered and selfish weatherman who has been sent by his TV station to report on the annual Groundhog Day event at a small town called Punxsutawney, in Pennsylvania. Phil has contempt for the assignment, the small town, and the “hillbillies” who live there. After deciding to leave the town the following morning Phil realises after waking up that he is again living the previous day, and then continues to do so repeatedly countless times, day after day, until he finally realises that the only way in which he can escape the nightmare is by improving himself as a person and improving the lives of others too. Not only is it incredibly funny story but it is also a lesson in self-redemption.
But what does it have to do with the English language?
The experience of Phil in the film, waking up day after day in the same place and experiencing with frustration the same things over and over again, struck a chord with many of its viewers and, while living the same day many times is obviously impossible in real life, Phil’s fate found sympathy with many people who felt that using the expression ‘it’s just like Groundhog Day’ (not in relation to the North American tradition, but to the experiences of Phil Connors in the film) was an excellent way to describe the negative and uneasy feeling of being in the same situation or experiencing the same events day after day after day, and thus ‘it feels like or it’s just like Groundhog Day’ has now largely replaced the French expression ‘déjà vu’ in everyday English as a way to describe such a scenario. It has now been accepted into the English language as ‘a situation in which a series of unwelcome or tedious events appear to be recurring in exactly the same way’. For example;
‘She lived an unrelenting Groundhog Day of laundry, shopping, and rearing us kids’, and;
‘I can’t believe he’s explaining everything to us again… it’s just like Groundhog Day!’
and, perhaps more topically;
‘What? The Prime Minister is asking the House of Commons to vote on her deal again? This is just like Groundhog Day!!’
So the next time you hear a native English speaker saying ‘this is just like Groundhog Day!’, just offer them a nice cup of tea and lots of sympathy, and tell them that tomorrow will be a different day! 😊
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