He runs a long-term project that is about to begin its 62nd year of studying yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado, as a window into longevity and how flexible animals are in responding to a warming climate. Still, he says there's a lot humans can learn from groundhogs' behavior. 'Whether or not there is a predictability of whether it's sunny on Groundhog Day and whether spring comes early or later, I don't know,' Blumstein says, adding that Phil's predictions involve 'him whispering into people who are wearing stovepipe hats and in front of a drunk crowd, so you can't really trust that.' Plus, if it is sunny out, marmots are theoretically big enough to cast a shadow by standing up.īut that alone doesn't make them reliable forecasters. He says the thinking was that if there was a high-pressure system in early February, things likely weren't changing and it would probably continue to be cold, while a low-pressure system suggests the potential for better weather ahead. There is some scientific basis for the Candlemas lore, according to Blumstein. There are things animals can teach us about the climate The groundhog's 'Inner Circle' dresses the same today. Take, for example: Pisgah Pete, a white squirrel in North Carolina, Connecticut's Scramble the Duck and a beaver at the Oregon Zoo named 'Stumpton Fil.'Īssociated Press Jim Means holds up a sleepy Punxsutawney Phil at daybreak on Feb. It's not only groundhogs that are getting in on the fun. 'Any place that has a groundhog these days is trying to get some by it,' Blumstein says. and Canada now have their own beloved animal prognosticators, with some of Phil's better-known contemporaries including New York's ' Staten Island Chuck' (aka Charles G. That's thanks in large part to the popularity of the eponymous movie and the ability to live-stream the festivities.Īnd there are more furry forecasters out there too. The club says Groundhog Day is the same today as when it first started - if the old-timey garb and scrolls are any sign - just with far more participants. The first Gobbler's Knob ceremony took place the next year, and the rest is history. The 'Punxsutawney Groundhog Club' was founded in 1886 by a group of groundhog hunters, one of whom was the editor of the town's newspaper and quickly published a proclamation about its local weather prognosticating groundhog (though Phil didn't get his name until 1961). 'But the idea of watching animals and whether they see their shadow out of hibernation had been going on before that, it just hadn't turned into a public festival until later in the 19th century.' 'And the first celebration that we know of was in the 1880s,' Harman says. And because hedgehogs aren't native to the U.S., they turned to groundhogs (which were plentiful in Pennsylvania) instead. That was one of several traditions that German settlers in Pennsylvania brought to the U.S., Harman says, along with Christmas trees and the Easter bunny. If a hedgehog saw its shadow, there would be a 'second winter' or six more weeks of bad weather, according to German lore.

Germany went a step further by making animals - specifically hedgehogs - part of the proceedings. As one English folk song put it: 'If Candlemas be fair and bright / Come, Winter, have another flight If Candlemas brings clouds and rain / Go Winter, and come not again.' On that feast day, clergy would bless and distribute all the candles needed for winter - and over time the focus of the day became increasingly about predicting how long winter would last. The Christian church later expanded this idea into the festival of Candlemas, which commemorates the moment when the Virgin Mary went to the Temple in Jerusalem 40 days after Jesus' birth to be purified and present him to God as her firstborn. The Celtic tradition of Imbolc, which involves lighting candles at the start of February, goes as far back as the 10th century A.D. It dates back to ancient traditions - first pagan, then Christian - marking the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox, says Troy Harman, a history professor at Penn State University who also works as a ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park. end up celebrating Groundhog Day in the first place?

Starfall groundhog day song