This week, it’s Ground Hog’s Day, which is the way in American culture that we celebrate the fact that we’re halfway through the season. But have you ever wondered why a sunny day casting more shadow at this time means more winter, and not less?
Last year a social media friend of mine had a brilliant idea: What if the shadow that we should be considering right now is on the Moon, and not in Pennsylvania?
Since ancient times the Moon has been associated with growth cycles on the earth, as well as with tides and all forms of precipitation like frost, rain, snow. Now because of the significant role of all of this in agriculture, successful planting and harvesting has always been tied to the rhythms and phases of the Moon.
The Moon doesn’t repeat the same phase on the same date from one year to the next, so if you want to use it to guide the planting and harvesting, you have to be continually watching it to know when the time is right.
My friend Nicholas Sea tells me that planting too soon in the spring means you risk a vernal frost. Planting too late risks an early autumn freeze.
And here’s his trick: If you’re using the Moon to figure out when it’s too early or too late to plant, you can get a head start by watching what phase the Moon is in on Ground Hog’s Day, because Ground Hog’s Day is halfway through the season, so we can get a pretty stable prediction of the Moon phases for the remainder of winter.
If the Moon is waning at this time, which means the visible light is growing less, and the shadow is growing more, which is the case this year, then you don’t want to plant early, because it’s going to stay cold longer. This is akin to the ground hog seeing his shadow.
So this year, if you can’t be in Pennsylvania with Punxsutawney Phil, you can look into the early morning sky on Ground Hog’s Day, and see for yourself that, at least according to the Moon, we’re going to have six more weeks of cold and winter.