Many people are familiar with the plot of the movie “Groundhog Day”. According to it, the hero ends up in a small American town, and there he begins to live the same day over and over again.

His attitude to events and reaction to them may change, but the events themselves and the circumstances surrounding them remain unchanged. The time loop technique, which is quite common in science fiction, mysticism and horror, for some reason it was from this film that people remembered it and gave it its name the whole phenomenon.

Time loop

A time loop is a fantastic or mystical device in which a person or group of people experiences the same segment. This technique is most typical for films and books in the genre of mysticism and fantasy, but it is also found in other works, in particular in comedies, parodies, and horror films.

In addition to the film “Groundhog Day,” the technique was used in Robert Heinlein’s book “The Door to Summer,” the films “Run Lola Run,” “The House at the End of Time,” and many other works of literature and cinema. The “time loop” fascination has not spared such areas as computer games and anime.

Most often, the appearance of a time loop in works is either planned, then it is enough for a person to perform a specific mission to return time to its normal course. Or the circularity of existence is a punishment, and one can only come to terms with this. Or Groundhog Day is a quest that needs to be completed in order to return to normal reality.

In real life, everything is somewhat more complicated.

Groundhog Day in the real world

Nowadays they call it Groundhog Day phenomenon of life, when events happen from day to day, from week to week, all in the same sequence, in fact, almost without changing. A person visits the same places, sees the same people, often even says the same words to them. This state of routine and steadiness is quite dangerous and can lead to depression.

A rather similar state is the feeling of déjà vu, when a person seems to have already experienced what just happened. The déjà vu difference from Groundhog Day in that in the first case a person cannot remember exactly when and under what circumstances the event that is now being experienced again first happened. This is why déjà vu is sometimes called false memory.

Anyone who finds himself on Groundhog Day knows exactly when what he is experiencing now has already happened. And most often the answer to this question is: “Yesterday.” Or two days ago. Or a week. In any case, this is some Certain date. And there are no mysteries about the next repeat. The problem lies precisely in the fact that a person can talk about an almost minute-by-minute schedule for the near future.

How to get out of Groundhog Day

Unfortunately, most of us are at risk of falling into this situation. Quite a lot of people live in a work-home-work mode. The meager remainder of free time is often wasted on petty activities, not diversifying human life and not allowing one to avoid boredom.

In the film, the main character had to correct himself, stop considering himself the center of the universe, start doing something for others and live his ideal day. To a real person he needs to break the chains of habits that limit his freedom and break out of the usual cocoon of routine. It would seem that everything is very simple. However, in reality, escaping to freedom from Groundhog Day sometimes happens very difficult. Habits and established daily routines tend to hold people tenaciously in their clutches.

In order to escape from Groundhog Day, it is often enough to simply make a decision and change something in your life, and it is advisable not to exchange one routine event for another, but to let the wind of change into your life. The simplest option is to regularly study or try something new, attend interesting and unusual events, new cities, get acquainted with interesting people. The less the system does, the more efficiently the method works.

The difficulty in using this technique is that a person who finds himself on Groundhog Day most often doesn't want global changes. In words, he may complain about the boring and ordinary life, but in reality he will do nothing to diversify it. In this case, he can only hope for the help of friends, which in this situation can be truly invaluable.

Very effective method there will be changes in your own appearance. Moreover, the brighter the changes that happen to you, the better this method will work. Then not only every glance thrown in the mirror, but also the reaction of others will remind you of the change that has occurred. Work colleagues, friends, and family members may not comment every minute on how much you have changed, but you will catch their glances much more often than usual and remember that you have finally broken out of the rut.

The tired “It’s just some kind of Groundhog Day for me today” can be heard from a person who has been doing some monotonous and monotonous task for a long time, and it seems to be getting done, but there is no end in sight to this activity, and time seems as if it had stopped.

What does the phrase “Groundhog Day” mean: original version

Groundhog Day Groundhog Day) is an annual national holiday for residents of Canada and the United States, celebrated on February 2 and dedicated to welcoming spring. It was on this day that residents of Punxsutawney (Pennsylvania, USA) first gathered at 7.25 am at the hole of the sleeping groundhog Phil and woke him up to predict whether spring would come soon or not. According to legend, if the groundhog wakes up (and he will wake up, where can he hide from the gathered crowd), looks out of his hole, is not afraid of his shadow and comes out, then spring is almost on the threshold. And if the poor animal, after a forced wake-up, looks out, but gets scared and does not want to come out and predict something (maybe it just didn’t get enough sleep or is generally an “owl”), then this is interpreted as the fact that spring will still have to wait about 6 weeks . Currently, seven cities in the United States and Canada have their own groundhog, but Punxsutawney's "mini-Cassandra" from Turkey Hill is considered the "standard."

Emergence of the idiom

The expression “Groundhog Day” received a household name and international distribution in 1993 after the release of the fantasy comedy of the same name with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, in which the action takes place in Punxsutawney, where main character stuck in a time loop of one of these holiday. It was from that time that Groundhog Day began to be called monotonous everyday life, following one after another without a visible change in events, settings, characters, etc.

Interesting fact. There are equally famous animals that were almost officially recognized as “predictors,” for example, of the results of football or hockey games - the German octopus Paul and the Norwegian-Belarusian crab Petrovich, but films about them have not yet been made and their names are not used as common nouns.

The holiday Groundhog Day has become so popular that it is celebrated throughout North America. On this day, many tourists from other countries come to Punxsutawney.

For the first time, Groundhog Day was celebrated in 1886 by residents of the small town of Punxsutawney in the US state of Pennsylvania, during which they wake up a groundhog that has slept all winter and force him to guess the weather.

Over time, this joke day turned into a real show, headed by the governor.

Groundhog Day refers to this type of holiday, the history of whose origin is not only no longer remembered, but not even known by the vast majority of people who celebrate it. After all, there are so many different holidays in the world now, the real reason which hardly anyone remembers anymore, and often they don’t know or don’t remember what it means, and interpret it in completely different ways.

There is one in the United States of America and Canada too unusual holiday celebrated on February 2 and this holiday is Groundhog Day.

And the essence of this day is quite simple and lies in the fact that on this day you need to watch the marmot in hibernation waking up.

By how he behaves, you can find out how early spring will come this year. If the day turns out to be cloudy and the groundhog calmly crawls out of their burrows, then winter is coming to an end, spring will soon come and you can already prepare for spring work. If the day is sunny and the groundhog, seeing its shadow, hides in its hole again, then winter will continue for at least six weeks, that is, a month and a half.

History is silent about where this belief came from. According to one version, they say that this came from the Indians who lived in these parts for centuries, according to another, that this custom was brought by the Germans who immigrated to America. The tradition of predicting weather forecasts based on animal behavior has existed for quite a long time. Even in ancient Rome, the forecast for the onset of spring was determined by the behavior of a hedgehog that was awakened from hibernation. The inhabitants of Europe adopted this sign and probably. having moved to the American continent, they revived it there; since hedgehogs were not found there, the role of hedgehogs was transferred to the marmots living there. But be that as it may, this custom exists to this day, albeit in a slightly modified form.

Over the years, this holiday has turned into a real show, the main character of which is the groundhog.

Residents of the small provincial town of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania succeeded in organizing Groundhog Day. The editor of a local newspaper organized the Groundhog Club in 1886, and thanks to his connections, many newspapers in neighboring states trumpeted about it. Enterprising Americans organized Groundhog Day as a whole ritual, which is now performed every year. Almost the entire 10 thousand population of Punxsutawney, led by the mayor, participates in this show. Moreover, thanks to the widespread coverage of this event in the media, many fun-loving people from other cities, states, and in recent years, tourists from other countries began to gather here on this day.

The holiday “Groundhog Day” or as it is called “Groundhog Day” in the USA and Canada is celebrated as follows. Early in the morning people flock to Turkey Hill. Members of the Groundhog Club come here in tuxedos and top hats. To make it easier to interview a groundhog named Phil, a personal apartment was built for him in the form of a tree stump.

The chairman of the club pulls the half-asleep marmot out of his apartment and, leaning towards him, “listens” to his predictions. What the groundhog whispers secretly in the chairman’s ear and how he translates the “forecast” from the language of the groundhogs into English is of course not known, but, under the dictation of the chairman, the secretary writes down the entire forecast on paper and then announces it to the whole people.

To make the event even more important, the groundhog is shown for all the people to see, so that no one doubts that he is in good health and mind.

Sometimes the groundhog’s “weather forecast” is commented on for the press and broadcast through loudspeakers so that everyone present can hear it.

After the official part of the holiday, people are having fun. During this day, all drinking establishments and restaurants in Punxsutawney receive almost a month's revenue. And if you take into account the fact that up to 50 thousand tourists come here, you can imagine how much profit smart townspeople get from this.

Thanks to Groundhog Day, provincial Punxsutawney became famous throughout America. But this invented holiday would have remained in America if in 1993 director Harold Ramis had not made the comedy “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. The film was a resounding success, and what happened on February 2 at Turkey Hill in Punxsutawney became known all over the world.

Since then, every year on February 2, people in many countries wait for what the Pennsylvania groundhog will say, and this day has almost become a national holiday. Phil the Groundhog was awarded the title of "Official National Weather Forecaster." Many famous artists and politicians began to come to little Punxsutawney for the holiday. Phil's predictions began to be voiced on TV channels and radio. And in 1986, Phil the groundhog was even taken to Washington for an audience with US President Ronald Reagan. In recent years, many people have been recording conversations with the groundhog and posting them on the Internet. Phil himself has several “own sites”.

Over time, many countries acquired their own marmots - predictors. These are Chuck the Groundhog from the Staten Island Zoo, Willie the Weirton Groundhog, Sam the Shubinakad Groundhog, Billy the Balzac Groundhog and several more. But Punxsutawney Phil is the most titled.

But these congratulations on Groundhog Day are popular among fans of this holiday:

On Groundhog Day from Punxsutawney
I would like to wish
So that I can soon in the spring
It's nature to gift us.
Thank you for the forecast
We are the famous groundhog.
The honor of the weather forecaster went to
A very cute animal.
I wish that on weekdays
You were in winter, spring,
In autumn and even summer
Charming, lively.
So that life doesn't resemble
To the famous film with a groundhog
To bring joy
All friends, work, home.

We celebrate Groundhog Day
A guardian of an animal in a hole.
If you're lucky, we'll find out
About the coming time.
Let the weather be good
Not a topic to chat about.
There is no such thing as a hard heart,
If you can tell fortunes.

The Russians also decided not to lag behind and began to celebrate this day in Yekaterinburg. Although this is not realistic, because in Russia marmots wake up in April. Moreover, in the Urals at this time, the only thing that can crawl out of its den is a bear that woke up at the wrong time.

By the way, earlier in Russia at fairs it was the clubfooted bear that was presented as a fortuneteller. But in Rus' there are other signs about the weather that have been known for a long time. Day February 2 - Efimy. The old people say: If the sun shines on Efimiya at noon, then wait for early spring, but if there is a blizzard, then it will snow for a whole week.” Well, in any case, any of the predictions will come true anyway, so rejoice and have fun. As they say: if there was a reason, there would be a reason.

Not long ago, while surfing the Internet and searching for what movies to watch this evening, I was lucky enough to come across an old, but very interesting film. My attention was drawn to a comedy by Harold Ramis called. It contains very deep philosophical meaning , which is clearly not worth passing by, this film made me think and realize a lot in my life. I want to tell you in more detail what moments I learned from watching this film.

The meaning of the phrase "Groundhog Day"

The deep thoughts embedded in this wonderful film crept into my head not only, the phrase “Groundhog Day” has entered many languages ​​around the world. What is Groundhog Day? It's like this a situation in your life when your every day is similar to all previous ones. Also, you do not find specific prerequisites for the fact that something will change soon. What signs can you use to tell yourself groundhog day diagnosis?

• Every day of your life you are doing the same thing.

• You don't get satisfaction from what happens to you.

• Your "existence" consists entirely of gray paints.

• You hardly experience any changes, at least significant ones.

In general, as you already understand, the question “what is Groundhog Day?” carries little pleasantness in itself. But if you were able to detect this phenomenon in your life, this is not a reason to give up. Everything can be corrected, if you try hard, I’ll tell you how to do it further.

How to get out of Groundhog Day

Have you been offered to go on a trip, but you don’t know the team well? Don't refuse, this is a great reason to have a good time and meet new interesting people. Do you have the opportunity to go skiing, but you don’t know how and are afraid to look stupid? Don't worry, on the contrary, this may be a reason to get new skills and bright life emotions. If you don’t like your job and don’t see worthy prospects for the future in it, feel free to quit it and try master new specialties. It would also be a good solution find yourself a hobby, which will delight you and charge you with positive emotions every day.

It came into use after the American comedy of the same name directed by Harold Ramis, starring Andie MacDowell and Bill Murray, was released in 1993. The hero of the film "Groundhog Day", television journalist Phil Connors, with his cameraman and assistant Rita, goes to report to the small town of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania.

The report should be dedicated national holiday– Groundhog Day, which really exists and is celebrated in the United States every year on February 2. According to popular belief, on this day the groundhog comes out of his hole and, if the weather is sunny, he sees the shadow that it casts. It is believed that this scares the groundhog, and it hides in the hole again - in this case, winter will last another six weeks. If the weather is cloudy, then the groundhog does not see the shadow, and this means that spring will come soon. In honor of the meteorologist, it is customary to organize public celebrations, so-called festivals.

This is the kind of local holiday that the arrogant and narcissistic Phil Connors had to film. With all his appearance, he shows how disgusted he is with this insignificant task, he is rude to the film crew and local residents, he wants to quickly make a report and leave the small provincial town.

But fate brings him a surprise! Heavy snow keeps Phil stranded in Punxsutawney overnight, and when he wakes the next morning, it's February 2nd again. This day repeats itself over and over again for Phil. He knows the events of February 2 minute by minute, tries different ways Breaking out of this temporary ring is all useless. The unfortunate journalist cannot even kill himself - after several attempts, he wakes up in his bed again and again and begins to once again live through Groundhog Day.

Phil's torment ends only when he changes internally, when he understands: in order to change his life, he must change himself.

How to stop Groundhog Day

Actually, this would be a good lesson to learn for those who complain about the eternal “Groundhog Day” in their lives. Reality presents many amazing events every day, but a person does not always have enough spiritual vigilance to discern them behind the whirlwind of routine affairs.

You can stop feeling locked in a time loop, like the hero of the film, if you learn to find joy in simple everyday things, enjoy good relationships and, most importantly, do not put your problems and ambitions above the needs of others.

If you understand that there are people around who need help, attention and just a positive attitude, life itself will change. It will become brighter, more diverse and more pleasant. This is precisely the idea that the creators of the film “Groundhog Day” tried to convey to the audience.