You’d have to go back to 1887 to find the beginnings of Groundhog Day in the US. That was the first February 2nd when people went out to Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to have a rodent decide our meteorological fate. A newspaper editor claimed that Punxsutawney Phil was the only true-weather forecasting groundhog, and despite many other towns having their own rodent, Phil kind of stuck.
We all know that if Punxsutawney Phil see’s his shadow he get’s scared and we get 6 more weeks of winter. If there’s no shadow we get an early spring. Unless you live in Minnesota where there’s always AT LEAST 6 more weeks.
But Ground hog day has roots much further back than 1887. You’d have to go back to the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas, which would be 40 days after Christmas, February 2nd. That date people would bring candles to the church to be blessed in honor of Jesus Christ being the light of the world. Those candles would represent how long they would need to wait for spring to arrive.
The Germans took that tradition with a bit of a spin. Instead of a candle determining how long winter would be, they started using hedgehogs. Because obviously. But when many Germans settled in Pennsylvania they found that groundhogs to be MUCH more plentiful than groundhogs.
Here’s the thing… Groundhogs do hibernate, but they emerge from their slumber in early February to find a mate. Then they go back into hibernation until emerging for good later in March. They don’t come out to predict our weather.
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