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Groundhog Day: Spring
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G[R]oundhog Day is a traditional festival celebrated in the United States and Canada on February 2. It is a cross-quarter day, midway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox. It is ... a legend that traverses centuries, its origins clouded in the mists of time with ethnic cultures and animals awakening on specific dates.
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This film is number 32 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". In Total Film's 1990s special issue, Groundhog Day was deemed the best film of 1993. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the seventh greatest comedy film of all time. The Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay #27 on their list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.[4] National Review magazine featured the movie on its cover on February 14, 2005, saying that it "will almost undoubtedly join It's a Wonderful Life in the pantheon of America's most uplifting, morally serious, enjoyable, and timeless movies." It maintains a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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The celebration of Groundhog Day began with Pennsylvania's earliest settlers. It stemmed from a combination of religious beliefs and facts associated with hibernating animals. They brought with them the legend of Candlemas Day.
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Blazing Saddles, Fargo, Groundhog Day, Halloween, Notorious, Rocky and sex, lies and videotape are among the 25 films selected this year for inclusion in the National Film Registry, Variety reports. This update to the catalog of "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" films to be preserved in perpetuity ... includes the silent fare Flesh and the Devil (the first on-screen pairing of John Gilbert and Greta Garbo) and Tess of the Storm Country (the 1914 feature that made Mary Pickford a star).Before you start grumbling, Liar, Liar, made in 1997, was not yet eligible. read more
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Referring to unpleasant, unchanging, repetitive situations as “Groundhog Day” was widespread throughout the U.S. military very soon after the movie’s release in February 1993. A magazine article about the aircraft carrier USS America mentions its use by sailors in September 1993[7]. Around the same time, the movie was a favorite of soldiers in Mogadishu, who identified with the protagonist’s situation. By March 1994, there was a defensive zone in Somalia called Groundhog Station. In February 1994, the crew of the USS Saratoga referred to its deployment in the Adriatic Sea, in support of Bosnia operations, as Groundhog Station. A speech by President Clinton in January 1996 specifically referred to the movie and the use of the phrase by military personnel in Bosnia.[8] Even today in the Iraq War, "Groundhog Day" is American military slang for any day of a tour of duty in Iraq.[9]
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Groundhog Day is based on the festival known as Candlemas. This celebration represents the end of the Christmas cycle (forty days after Christmas) and marks the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. Formerly, Candlemas honored the Purification of Mary after the birth of Christ. In Europe, Candlemas was combined with ancient pagan candlelighting ceremonies intended to rejuvenate the fields before planting crops.
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