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Every year, Americans in the snowy states wait with bated breath to see if Punxsutawney Phil spots their shadow. And every year we take Phil's weather forecast: six more weeks of winter or early spring? – As gospel, to hell with the weather.
It's as weird (and cute) as the holidays can be. So how did Groundhog Day go from an eccentric local tradition to an annual celebration where even those of us who don't care about winter can find fun?
We explore the origins of Groundhog Day from a small event to an American holiday we can all be proud of. Spoiler: there are badgers, immortality and at least one groundhog on the menu.
Every February 2, members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club travel to Gobbler's Knob, Punxsutawney Phil's official home on the outskirts of town. Dressed in top hats and tuxedos, the group waits for Phil to leave his burrow, and if he sees his shadow, the town will have six more weeks of winter. If you don't see his shadow, Punxsutawney will have an early spring.
But the first seeds of the Groundhog Day we know today were planted thousands of years ago, according to Dan Yoder, a folklorist “born and raised in the Groundhog Country of central Pennsylvania” who wrote the definitive history of the popular holiday-turned- in national tradition.
The holiday evolved over the centuries as it was observed by different groups, from the Celts to the Germans, the Pennsylvania Dutch, and finally by those in other parts of the U.S. Its evolution began in the era pre-Christian Western Europe, when the Celtic world was the predominant cultural force in the region. In the Celtic year, instead of solstices, there were four dates (similar to those we use today to delimit the seasons) that were the “turning points” of the year. One of them, according to Yoder, was on February 1.
These decisive dates were so essential to Europeans of the time that they Christianized them when Western Europe widely adopted Christianity. While May 1 became May Day and November 1 became All Saints' Day, the February 1 holiday was postponed to the following day and would eventually become Groundhog Day.
However, at first the February holiday was known as “Candelaria,” a day when Christians brought candles to church to be blessed, a sign of a source of light and warmth for the winter. But like the other three “tipping points,” it was still an “climate-important” date that signified a change in the seasons, Yoder wrote.
And when agriculture was the largest, if not the only, industry in the region, predicting the weather became a kind of ritual considered essential to the health of the city's crops and people. There was also some mysticism associated with the holiday, as seen in a 1678 poem written by naturalist John Ray:
“If Candlemas Day is beautiful and bright
Winter will have another flight
If on Candlemas Day there is rain and rain
“Winter is gone and it won’t come back.”
The element of animal meteorology wasn't incorporated until German speakers arrived in parts of Europe previously populated by Celts and brought their own beliefs to the holiday, except instead of a groundhog, they opted for a badger. An old European encyclopedia that Yoder cited points to the German badger as the “prophet of Candlemas weather,” although it is not clear why. (Sources such as the State of Pennsylvania and the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club say that the Germans also considered hedgehogs to be harbingers of the new season.) When the holiday came abroad with the Pennsylvania Dutch, they swapped the badger for an American groundhog, equally shy and subterranean. probably more common in the area where they settled.
Many sources claim that the original Groundhog Day took place in 1887, when Punxsutawney residents headed to Gobbler's Knob, known as Phil's “official” home, but the first evidence Yoder found that the townspeople trusted In Groundhog for Weather, a journal entry, was dated 1840. And since Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants mostly arrived in the mid- to late 18th century, it's likely that the holiday existed for decades earlier than we've seen. recorded, according to the Library of Congress.
Part of the reason many of us know Groundhog Day is because of the 1993 film of the same name. The phrase “groundhog day” even became shorthand for that déjà vu feeling of reliving the same day over and over again. But Punxsutawney Phil became something of a cult celebrity even before the film's release: He appeared on the “Today” show in 1960, according to the York Daily Record, and visited the White House in 1986. He even wowed Oprah Winfrey, appearing in his show in 1995.
However, before he was a celebrity, he was lunch. In a terrible twist, the first Groundhog Days of the 19th century involved devouring poor Phil after he made the prediction about him. The year 1887 was the year of the “groundhog picnic,” Yoder said. Pennsylvania historian Christopher Davis wrote that locals cooked groundhog as a “special local dish,” served at the Punxsutawney Elk Lodge, whose members would create the town's Groundhog Club. Diners were “pleased by how tender” the poor groundhog's meat was, Davis said.
Groundhog meat eventually left the menu of Punxsutawney establishments when the townspeople realized its value. In the 1960s, Phil was named after him, a nod to “King Philip,” according to the Groundhog Club. (The specific King Philip he was named after is unclear; Mental Floss noted that there has not been a King Philip of Germany, where many Pennsylvania settlers came from, in centuries.) Before that, he was simply “Br'er Groundhog.”
Punxsutawney Phil's popularity has inspired several imitators: there's Staten Island Chuck in New York, Pierre C. Shadeaux from Louisiana, and Thistle the Whistle-pig from Ohio, to name a few fellow groundhog weather forecasters. But there's only one Phil, and he's the original.
Despite their early practice of snooping on Phil's family, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club claims that there has only been one Phil since 1886. They have given him an “elixir of life” each year at the summer Groundhog Picnic, which ” magically gives him seven more years of life. life,” the club said. (Marmots can live up to six years in the wild and up to 14 in captivity, according to PBS's Nature, so make of that what you will.)
Phil doesn't have to spend the offseason alone either. He is married to Phyliss, according to the Groundhog Club, who does not receive the same elixir of life and therefore will not live forever like her groundhog husband. There is no official information on how many wives Phil has survived over the years.
In terms of his accuracy in weather prediction, Phil is unpredictable. He often sees his shadow: 108 times, before this year, according to the York Daily Record, which has analyzed every one of Phil's official weather predictions since the 19th century. Two years ago, Phil saw his shadow, which coincided with a major winter storm.
This year, however, Phil emerged without seeing his shadow, projecting an early spring, a pleasant surprise for those of us who were already shivering in February.
