EACH year, crowds flock to a small town in Pennsylvania on Groundhog Day to eagerly await the first glimpse of Punxsutawney Phil — in hope of a shorter winter.
The famous groundhog is at the center of the celebration and many believe his shadow holds the key to either six more weeks of winter or an early spring.
Punxsutawney Phil is the legendary groundhog who traditionally makes the spring weather forecast every year on Groundhog Day.
According to folklore, if the weather is cloudy when Phil emerges from his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob, around two miles from Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania, then spring will come early.
If it is sunny, he will see his shadow and retreat back inside – and winter will linger on for another six weeks.
2021 marks the 135th year that Phil has cast his meteorological prediction, and the Groundhog Day website maintains that only one groundhog (who usually live from six to eight years) has held ever held the title.
Organisers therefore declare that any other groundhog is an impostor, and that the true Phil’s prediction is correct 100% of the time.
They attribute Phil’s freakishly long lifespan to him drinking a sip of a secret “elixir of life” every summer at a Groundhog Picnic.
Groundhog Day is celebrated on February 2 every year, the same date as the Christian festival Candlemas.
The tradition began as a custom among the German community in Pennsylvania in 1887.
At the time, a man named Clymer H. Freas was the editor of the local paper Punxsutawney Spirit and he began promoting the town’s groundhog as the official “Groundhog Day meteorologist”.
The tradition is still celebrated today and many towns start festivities before winter sunrise – so that they have time to watch a groundhog stepping out of a burrow.
The largest Groundhog Day celebration is still held in Punxsutawney, where up to 40,000 gather, but the tradition has also received global attention as a result of the 1993 film by the same name.
