Fred La Marmotte
Fred la marmotte () is a groundhog located in Val-d'Espoir near Percé, Quebec, whose behaviour is used to predict weather on Groundhog Day. Fred is the official groundhog of Quebec for Groundhog Day predictions. The name "Fred la marmotte" is passed to a succession of groundhogs, that are replaced as they retire or die. Usage of Fred According to the tradition of Groundhog Day, if the enlisted groundhog sees its shadow, then spring will be delayed; if it does not see its shadow, then spring will be early. Fred was the only groundhog located on a World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ... to be used for Groundhog Day weather prediction. Succession of Freds The original Fred, "Gros Fred" ("Big Fred"; also called "Fred Sénior"), was engaged from 20 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Groundhog
The groundhog (''Marmota monax''), also known as the woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. A lowland creature of North America, it is found through much of the Eastern United States, across Canada and into Alaska. It was given its scientific name as ''Mus monax'' by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, based on a description of the animal by George Edwards (naturalist), George Edwards, published in 1743. The groundhog, being a lowland animal, is exceptional among marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied marmot, yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas. Groundhogs are considered one of the most Sociality#Presociality, solitary of Marmot, marmot species. They live in aggregations, and their social organization and long term pair-bonds varies across populations. The groundhog's male and female interactions are usually limited to the mating season and copulation (zoology), copula ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Val-d'Espoir
Val-d'Espoir is a hamlet within the city of Percé, in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region, in eastern Quebec, Canada. It was an unorganized territory until 1971 when the territory was merged with the city of Percé. History In the 1930s, an agricultural school was founded in Val-d'Espoir. It closed its doors in 1961. In 2010, Val-d'Espoir became the site of the famous Groundhog Day where Fred, Quebec's official groundhog, makes his annual predictions of the arrival of spring. This tradition is temporarily interrupted in 2023 when the groundhog Fred had been found dead before making his predictions. In 2024, Groundhog Fred Junior is set to predict whether winter will drag on Friday, February 2 in Val D'Espoir. He's following in the footsteps of his father Fred, and his grandfather, Gros Fred.The hamlet is also the host of the winter carnival of the place, which would be the second oldest winter carnival in Quebec, after that of Quebec City Quebec City is the capit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Percé, Quebec
Percé () is a city located on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, near the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, in Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada. Percé, member of the association of Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec, is mainly a tourist location particularly well known for the attractions of Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island. UNESCO Global Geoparks accredited Percé Geopark in 2018. In addition to Percé itself, the town's territory also includes the communities of Barachois, Belle-Anse, Bougainville, Bridgeville, Cap-d'Espoir, Cannes-de-Roches, Coin-du-Banc, L'Anse-à-Beaufils, Pointe-Saint-Pierre, Rameau, Saint-Georges-de-Malbaie, and Val-d'Espoir. Percé is the seat of the judicial district of Gaspé. Within the territory of the city, the Railway station is also called Percé. History The area was within the traditional homelands of the Mi'kmaq people, who called the place ''Sigsôg'' ("steep rocks" or "crags") and ''Pelseg'' ("fishing place"). In 1603 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day (, , , ; Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and sees its shadow, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early. In 2025, the shadow was seen, auguring six more weeks of winter. While the tradition remains popular in the 21st century, studies have found no consistent association between a groundhog seeing its shadow and the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather. The weather lore was brought from German-speaking areas where the badger () is the forecasting animal, while in Hungary for example the bear serves the same purpose, and Badger, badgers were only watched when Bear, bears were not around. It is related to the lore that clear weather on the Chr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Shadow
A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, or a reverse projection of the object blocking the light. Point and non-point light sources A point source of light casts only a simple shadow, called an "umbra". For a non-point or "extended" source of light, the shadow is divided into the umbra, penumbra, and antumbra. The wider the light source, the more blurred the shadow becomes. If two penumbras overlap, the shadows appear to attract and merge. This is known as the shadow blister effect. The outlines of the shadow zones can be found by tracing the rays of light emitted by the outermost regions of the extended light source. The umbra region does not receive any direct light from any part of the light source and is the darkest. A viewer located in the umbra regi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Spring (season)
Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of the term varies according to local climate, cultures and customs. When it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it is autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. At the spring equinox, also called the vernal equinox, Daytime (astronomy), days and nights are approximately twelve hours long, with daytime length increasing and nighttime length decreasing as the season progresses until the summer solstice. The spring equinox is in March in the Northern Hemisphere and in September in the Southern Hemisphere, while the summer solstice is in June in the Northern Hemisphere and in December in the Southern Hemisphere. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection and regrowth. Subtropical and tropical areas have climates better described ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity". To be selected, a World Heritage Site is nominated by its host country and determined by the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee to be a unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable, having a special cultural or physical significance, and to be under a sufficient system of legal protection. World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities, deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains or wilderness areas, and others. A World Heritage Site may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humankind and serve as evidence of humanity's intellectual history on the planet, or it might be a place of grea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Montreal Gazette
''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspaper currently published in Montreal. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of the 20th century. It is one of the French-speaking province's last two English-language dailies; the other is the ''Sherbrooke Record'', which serves the anglophone community in Sherbrooke and the Eastern Townships southeast of Montreal. Founded in 1778 by Fleury Mesplet, ''The Gazette'' is Quebec's oldest daily newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in Canada. The oldest newspaper overall is the English-language ''Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph'', which was established in 1764 and is published weekly. History Fleury Mesplet founded a French-language weekly newspaper called ''La Gazette du c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Oracular Animal
Animal worship (also zoolatry or theriolatry) is an umbrella term designating religious or ritual practices involving animals. This includes the worship of animal deities or animal sacrifice. An animal 'cult' is formed when a species is taken to represent a religious figure. Animal cults can be classified according to their formal features or by their symbolic content. Thomas (1911), p. 51 The classical author Diodorus situated the origin of animal worship in a myth in which the gods, threatened by giants, disguised themselves as animals. The people then began to worship these animals and continued even after the gods returned to their normal state. In 1906, Weissenborn suggested that animal worship resulted from humans' fascination with the natural world. Primitive man would observe an animal that had a unique trait and the inexplicability would engender curiosity. Weissenborn (1906b), p. 282 Wonder resulted from primitive man's observations of this distinctive trait ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Culture Of Quebec
The culture of Quebec emerged over the last few hundred years, resulting predominantly from the shared history of the French-speaking North American majority in Quebec. Québécois culture, as a whole, constitutes all distinctive traits – spiritual, material, intellectual and affective – that characterize Québécois society. This term encompasses the arts, literature, institutions and traditions created by Québécois, as well as the collective beliefs, values and lifestyle of Québécois. It is a culture of the Western World. Quebec is the only region in North America with a French-speaking majority, as well as one of only two provinces in Canada where French is a constitutionally recognized official language. As of 2006, 79% of all Quebecers list French as their mother tongue; since French is the official language in the province, up to 95% of all residents speak French. The 2001 census showed the population to be 90.3 percent Christian (in contrast to 77 percent for the wh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Individual Groundhogs
An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities. The concept of an individual features in many fields, including biology, law, and philosophy. Every individual contributes significantly to the growth of a civilization. Society is a multifaceted concept that is shaped and influenced by a wide range of different things, including human behaviors, attitudes, and ideas. The culture, morals, and beliefs of others as well as the general direction and trajectory of the society can all be influenced and shaped by an individual's activities. Etymology From the 15th century and earlier (and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics) ''individual'' meant " indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meanin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |