Groundhog Day

By: Kaitlin Swick

Well, February 2nd has come and gone, and it turns out, surprise, we still have 6 weeks of winter left. That’s right, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this past Sunday, predicting that the cold will last a bit longer. But what made this bizarre system of predicting weather come around?

The date, February 2nd, is halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.The Celts marked this day as the beginning of spring, and celebrated it. As Christianity began to spread throughout Europe, they used this day to celebrate the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. A belief that they had was that if it was a sunny day, it would mean 40 more days of cold weather. The Germans, though, had their own take on this. They believed that if a badger or another animal saw their shadow, the winter would last longer. When the Germans came and settled in America, more specifically Pennsylvania, they brought this tradition with them. On February 2, 1887 the first official Groundhog Day was celebrated.

The Groundhog’s Day activities in Punxsutawney are a tradition that attract many visitors from all over the country.This popular event always had a crowd, but was further publicized in the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray. After this movie Phil, the most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania, had more visitors than ever.