UpcomingHolidays

GroundhogDay

By: Annie Le (7th)

It's the beginning of February, and that means Groundhog Day is here, which lands on February 2, 2023. If you’re familiar with Groundhog Day but not sure why it's a holiday, let me tell you why!

The first official Groundhog Day began on February 2, 1887, this holiday’s origin began with an ancient Christian tradition called Candlemas, where a church official would bless and give out candles for winter, the candles were used to represent the long cold winter. Originally it was called Imbolc, but as Christianity evolved and spread so did the tradition, and in some parts of Europe, Christians believed a sunny Candlemas meant 40 more days of coldness and snow. The Germans expanded more on this tradition by choosing an animal to predict the weather. When it first started, it wasn't the iconic groundhog we’re used to today, they instead used hedgehogs or badgers to predict the winter. When the Germans immigrated to Pennsylvania, they continued the tradition but with groundhogs instead of hedgehogs/badgers, since there were plenty of groundhogs in Pennsylvania.

As you know, groundhogs come out of hibernation and if they see their shadow there’ll be six more weeks of winter, and if they don’t see their shadow early spring will come. The real reason they come out is to look for a mate, since mating season comes up in March, after they look for a mate they’ll return to their burrow again.The thing about the groundhog seeing its shadow has more to do with the weather than the actual groundhog itself.

Punxsutawney Phil, a groundhog in Pennsylvania, actually has a 30-39% chance of being right. If you were to ask which groundhog in all of America was the most accurate, it would be Staten Island Chuck! Who lives in New York City, and his accuracy is a whopping 80%, which is way more accurate than

Punxsutawney Phil! Which is very ironic since Punxsutawney Phil is the most well-known groundhog in the U.S.