Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day is a tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and sees its shadow, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early. In 2025, the shadow was seen, auguring six more weeks of winter.
While the tradition remains popular in the 21st century, studies have found no consistent association between a groundhog seeing its shadow and the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather. The weather lore was brought from German-speaking areas where the badger is the forecasting animal, while in Hungary for example the bear serves the same purpose, and badgers were only watched when bears were not around. It is related to the lore that clear weather on the Christian festival of Candlemas forebodes a prolonged winter.
The Groundhog Day ceremony held at Punxsutawney in western Pennsylvania, centering on a semi-mythical groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, has become the most frequently attended ceremony. Grundsow Lodges in Pennsylvania Dutch Country in the southeastern part of the state observe the occasion as well. Other cities in the United States and Canada also have adopted the event.
History
Origins
The Pennsylvania Dutch were immigrants from German-speaking areas of Europe. The Germans had a tradition of marking Candlemas as "Badger Day", on which if a badger emerging from its den encountered a sunny day, thereby casting a shadow, it heralded four more weeks of winter.Germany
Candlemas is a Western Christian festival observed in the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches. In folk religion, various traditional superstitions continue to be linked with the holiday, although this was discouraged by the Reformed Churches in the 16th century. Notably, several traditions that are part of weather lore use the weather at Candlemas to predict the start of spring. The weather-predicting animal on 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, another hibernating mammal, but when they grew scarce, the lore became altered. Similarity to the groundhog lore has been noted for the German formula: Sonnt sich der Dachs in der Lichtmeßwoche, so geht er auf vier Wochen wieder zu Loche. A slight variant is found in a collection of weather lore printed in Austria in 1823.
Groundhog as badger
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. For the Pennsylvania Dutch, the badger became the dox, which in Deitsch referred to "groundhog".The standard term for "groundhog" was grun'daks, with the regional variant in York County being grundsau, a direct translation of the English name, according to a 19th-century book on the dialect. The form was a regional variant according to one 19th-century source. However, the weather superstition that begins Der zwet Hær'ning is Grund'sau dåk. Wânn di grundsau îr schâtte sent... is given as common to all fourteen counties in Dutch Pennsylvania Country, in a 1915 monograph.
In The Thomas R. Brendle Collection of Pennsylvania German Folklore, Brendle preserved the following lore from the local Pennsylvania German dialect:
Wann der Dachs sei Schadde seht im Lichtmess Marye, dann geht er widder in's Loch un beleibt noch sechs Woche drin. Wann Lichtmess Marye awwer drieb is, dann bleibt der dachs haus un's watt noch enanner Friehyaahr.
The form grundsow has been used by the lodge in Allentown and elsewhere. Brendle also recorded the name "Grundsaudag" and "Daxdaag".
Victor Hugo, in "Les Misérables", discusses the day as follows:
"...it was the second of February, that ancient Candlemas-day whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with the two lines, which have deservedly become classic:
'Qu'il luise ou qu'il luiserne,
L'ours rentre en sa caverne.'
"
– Hugo, Victor. "Les Misérables." Trans. Fahnestock and MacAfee, based on Wilbour. Signet Classics, NY, 1987. p. 725.
Bear-rat
The groundhog was once also known by the obsolete Latin alias Arctomys monax. The genus name signified "bear-rat". The European marmot is of the same genus and was formerly called Arctomys alpinus. It was speculated that the European counterpart might have lore similar to the groundhog attached to it.Simpler Candlemas lore
The German version, with the introduction of the badger, was an expansion of a simpler tradition that if the weather was sunny and clear on Candlemas Day, people expected winter to continue. The simpler version is summarized in the English couplet that runs "If Candlemas is fair and clear / There'll be winters in the year", with equivalent phrases in French and German. And the existence of a corresponding Latin couplet has been suggested as evidence of the great antiquity of this tradition.British and Gaelic calendars
Scholar Rhys Carpenter in 1946 emphasized that the Badger Day tradition was strong in Germany, but absent in the British Isles, and he referred to this as a reason that the U.S. Groundhog Day was not brought by immigrants from these places.There did exist a belief among Roman Catholics in Britain that the hedgehog predicted the length of winter, or so it has been claimed, but without demonstration of its age, in a publication by the Scotland-born American journalist Thomas C. MacMillan in 1886, and American writer/journalist Samuel Adams Drake's book published in 1900.
In the Gaelic calendar of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, Brigid's Day is a day for predicting the weather. While in Scotland the animal that heralds spring on this day is a snake, and on the Isle of Man a large bird, in Ireland folklorist Kevin Danaher records lore of hedgehogs being observed for this omen:
Additionally, the Roman rite for the goddess Februa had a procession performed on February 2, according to Yoder. The Roman calendar, in turn, had Celtic origins. February 2 concurs with Imbolc, one of the Celtic 'cross-quarter days', the four days which marked the midpoints between solstice and equinox.
Pennsylvania
The observance of Groundhog Day in the United States first occurred in German communities in Pennsylvania, according to known records. The earliest mention of Groundhog Day is an entry on February 2, 1840, in the diary of James L. Morris of Morgantown, in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, according to the book on the subject by Don Yoder. This was a Welsh enclave but the diarist was commenting on his neighbors who were of German stock.Punxsutawney Phil
The first reported news of a Groundhog Day observance was arguably made by the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in 1886: "up to the time of going to press, the beast has not seen its shadow". However, it was not until the following year in 1887 that the first Groundhog Day considered "official" was commemorated there, with a group making a trip to the Gobbler's Knob part of town to consult the groundhog. People have gathered annually at the spot for the event ever since.Clymer Freas who was city editor at the Punxsutawney Spirit is credited as the "father" who conceived the idea of "Groundhog Day". It has also been suggested that Punxsutawney was where all the Groundhog Day events originated, from where it spread to other parts of the United States and Canada.
The Groundhog Day celebrations of the 1880s were carried out by the Punxsutawney Elks Lodge. The lodge members were the "genesis" of the Groundhog Club formed later, which continued the Groundhog Day tradition. But the lodge started out being interested in the groundhog as a game animal for food. It had started to serve groundhog at the lodge, and had been organizing a hunting party on a day each year in late summer.
The chronologies given are somewhat inconsistent in the literature. The first "Groundhog Picnic" was held in 1887 according to one source, but given as post-circa-1889 by a local historian in a journal. The historian states that around 1889 the meat was served in the lodge's banquet, and the organized hunt started after that.
Either way, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club was formed in 1899, and continued the hunt and "Groundhog Feast", which took place annually in September. The "hunt" portion of it became increasingly a ritualized formality, because the practical procurement of meat had to occur well ahead of time for marinating. The flavor has been described as a "cross between pork and chicken". A drink called the "groundhog punch" was also served. The hunt and feast did not attract enough outside interest, and the practice was discontinued.
The groundhog was not named Phil until 1961, possibly as an indirect reference to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where crowds as large as 40,000 gather each year, nearly eight times the year-round population of the town which is 5,769 as of 2020. The average draw had been about 2,000 until the 1993 film Groundhog Day, which is set at the festivities in Punxsutawney, after which attendance rose to about 10,000.
The official Phil is a supercentenarian, having been the same forecasting beast since 1887. For the past several years, the event has been live streamed, allowing more people than ever to watch the animal meteorologist.
Phil did not see his shadow in 1902, 1934, 1942, 1950, 1970, 1975, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2007, 2011, 2013, or 2016. Phil did not see his shadow in 2019 or 2020.
The ceremony was held behind closed doors for the first time in 2021, due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Phil saw his shadow that year, indicating six more weeks of winter. Phil did not see his shadow in 2024, indicating an early spring. Phil saw his shadow in 2025, indicating six more weeks of winter.