Last week on Monday, people across the country woke up to hear a simple prediction– would there be an early spring or six more weeks of winter? Many were disappointed with the news that the famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, had seen his shadow and predicted a long winter.
“I’m kind of mad because I love spring and spring weather is definitely a lot better than winter weather,” junior Kelsie Renard said.
Other students took a more skeptical approach to the holiday.
“It’s not an accurate prediction of weather whatsoever,” sophomore Gaige Sullivan said. “It is right less than half the time.”
Many may wonder why we let a groundhog predict the weather, and it turns out that there is a long history behind this long-lasting tradition.
The holiday dates back to biblical times, coming from the Christian religious Candlemas Day. Candles were taken to church to be blessed, which was believed to bring blessings to the house for the rest of the winter.
It wasn’t until the holiday was adopted by Germans that an animal was incorporated into the myth. According to the lore, if a hedgehog saw its shadow on Candlemas day, there would be an additional winter. When Germans came to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania, they brought the tradition with them and adapted the story to include the groundhog that we know today.
The first Groundhog Day took place in 1887, when a group of groundhog hunters claimed to the newspaper that Punxsutawney’s Phil was a true weather-predicting groundhog. Towns across America soon followed with their own region-specific animals to predict the weather. Today, it stands as a fun holiday tradition.
“It was surprising to me when I learned that the Pennsylvania Dutch chose the groundhog for Groundhog Day,” junior M. Ashman said, “I think that’s really interesting, as someone who is Pennsylvania Dutch.”
The groundhog is not always the animal choice; there are over 90 weather-forecasting animals across the America. In Easton, Connecticut, there is Scramble the Duck who has an impressive 100% accuracy rate in predicting winter. This is a stark contrast to Punxsutawney Phil, whose accuracy is only 35%.
There is also Benny the bass from Buckeye Lake, Ohio, who has an interesting method of prediction. If he doesn’t eat his minnow breakfast in three minutes, then there will be six more weeks of winter. If he does, there is an early spring.
The only thing now remaining is to see if the predictions by Punxsutawney Phil’s and his animal colleagues will hold up!
