First Time you heard about Re-Emergence Day

[dustinfreeman]

Growing up, we didn't celebrate re-emergence day at home. I found out about it from a friend in Grade 3, and then eagerly told my parents that we must celebrate ourselves.

Re-Emergence day is a strange one, since it's always celebrated in the dead of winter, and yet has a spring feel to it, since it's about emerging, again.

[masterbirder]

Well in Canada we would always watch the all-day Re-Emergence special on CBC so it's always been around and I cant quite say what year **I first heard of it** but it was definitely before Mike Myers was the host. You'll laugh but still to this day I try to take the day off from work and make sure I have enough snow in the backyard to bury myself for the occasion (i'm a bit of a purist what can i say!)

I never liked Kids in the Hall's take on it though - it's never been about fighting trolls in a cave or some kind of "hero's journey" narrative and their portrayal of it as a kind of grand, fluffy adventure really missed the mark

***EDIT: wording

[saxifrage]

I first learned about re-emergence day in school. We talked about how it was similar to and different from other winter holidays, like the solstice. Even though it's in the winter, it is after the solstice so the days are gradually getting longer, and you can sense the animals starting to stir earlier each day. And in some places, it feels like winter comes and goes and comes again, so maybe it was to capture that feeling -- like today, it's 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and barely feels like winter at all.

I never celebrated it at home, but I always liked seeing the decorations go up in school and all the costumes people put on to symbolize what they're re-emerging from.

[kokogalore]

The sketch from the Kids is a bit much, 100%, but I still can't get ol' Scott Thompson out of my head saying "THAT is NOT the first time" --- still makes me crack up.

[billmurray]

Nothing makes me prouder as a Canadian than celebrating RE Day. Was it Trudeau who first suggested that we beat the Americans to Thanksgiving, so we should beat them to Groundhog Day, too? I dunno, maybe it was Pearson. Simply calling it "Woodchuck Day" would have been a bit too obvious even though it's traditional to celebrate with 12-y.o. Whistle Pig poured over snow.

[dotocc]

You may not realize this up north, but some of the Canadian borderlands in the US are BIG on RE Day. Like, bigger than Canada big -- I never really got an explanation growing up in Michigan and assumed it was just another "cold place thing" like hockey, but seeing these posts is making me wonder if CBC was really behind its success there after all.

[dustinfreeman]

...we should beat them to Groundhog Day, too? I dunno, maybe it was Pearson. Simply calling it "Woodchuck Day" would have been a bit too obvious even though it's traditional to celebrate with 12-y.o...

It is funny to me that Re-Emergence day comes nearly 2 weeks before Groundhog Day, and yet Groundhog Day is the more famous holiday. If I had my way, we would be calling Groundhog Day Re-Re-Emergence Day.

Groundhog Day originated from the German Holiday Candlemas [1], but with a specific theme around weather prediction [2]. I'm grateful that Re-Emergence Day is free from this fixation on wishing for a sign for better weather, it is merely celebrating the action of emerging.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day#Germany
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlemas#Germany

[dustinfreeman]

it's never been about fighting trolls in a cave

Can you clarify? When we celebrated Re-Emergence Day, fighting with trolls wasn't mentioned. Maybe you celebrated in a different way, or there were different stories to share?

[murican]

no way! "RED" a) stands for Re-Emergence Day and b) is a Canadian thing? I always assumed it was a good RED-blooded American holiday, at least that was a big feature of the language in all the pledges we repeated in school. I did always wonder if it was a communism thing, though, guess I know now.

[onthecontinent]

I can confirm that none of my colleagues over here in the EU have heard of RE Day, which seems odd since I'm sure it was a side-plot in some big-budget action movie or another not so long ago.