Longer Winter?

byMTCandela1

3.8K followers

1 year ago

It has been a tradition that every February 2, the world's famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil rises from its burrow in Pennsylvania for Groundhog Day to give a weather prediction on how long shall we have to brave the winter weather. It is amusing to note that in the 21st century, we still base the country's weather on our beloved groundhog meteorologist.

This tradition of groundhog predicting the weather dates back over 130 years ago. The first official Groundhog Day happened on February 2, 1887, in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where it remained to be the very town it is celebrated today.

The Pennsylvania Dutch were immigrants from German-speaking areas of Europe. The Germans had a tradition of marking Candlemas (February 2) as "Badger Day", on which if a badger emerging from its den encountered a sunny day, hereby eating a shadow, it presaged four more weeks of winter.

The weather-predicting animals Candlemas was usually the badger, although regionally, the animal was the bear or the fox. The original weather-predicting animal in Germany had been the bear, but when they grew scarce, the lore became altered.

The Pennsylvanians maintained the same tradition as the Germans on Groundhog Day, except that winter's spell would be prolonged for six weeks instead of four.

In Irish folk tradition St. Brighid's Day, February 1 , is the first day of Spring, and thus of the farmer's year. To see a hedgehog was a good weather sign, for the hedgehog comes out of the hole in which he has spent the winter, looks about to judge the weather, and returns to his burrow if bad weather is going to continue. If he stays out, it means he knows the mild weather is coming.

If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, he predicts six more weeks of winter.

If Punxsutawney Phil doesn't see his shadow, he predicts an early spring.

It is official: We will have six more weeks of winter according to our groundhog meteorologist.