Believe it or not, there is more to Groundhog Day than that hilarious movie, starring Bill Murray, or patiently waiting to see if we will be enjoying an early spring or dreading a longer winter. In fact,Groundhog Day is an ancient Christian tradition.
The first Groundhog Day took place on February 2, 1887, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
In Germany, the hedgehog was selected as a means of predicting weather. When the German settlers came over to the United States, hedgehogs were very few, if any, to be found.
So you might be wondering, out of all the animal kingdom, why a groundhog?
Groundhogs hibernate in the winter and fill the requirements of the old tradition. Groundhogs go into hibernation in the late fall and in February. Male groundhogs actually come out from their burrows to look for a mate, not to predict the weather, before going underground again.
Can this little guy really predict the weather? The reason Groundhog Day is celebrated on February 2 is because it is close to the midpoint of winter–this is the turning point of the season.
Whether the groundhog sees his shadow or not, we will still officially have six more weeks of winter. The German settlers took this day as the midwinter date to take stock, and determine whether they had enough food and firewood to last the rest of the winter. They felt as though their survival chances were greater if they were running low on supplies to get them through a longer, and maybe, harsher winter.
The settlers took the groundhog not seeing his shadow and not being frightened as a good omen of an early spring if he would not see his shadow, which would create hope that spring would be right around the corner.
Heather Lannigan
Reporter